


Animal Crossing: The Nightmare of Aika

by Windryder1



Category: Animal Crossing New Leaf, どうぶつの森 | Animal Crossing Series
Genre: ACNL, Aika Village, Aika Village story, Alice - Freeform, Alice in Wonderland, Animal Crossing New Leaf - Freeform, Broken Love, Cecelia (animal crossing new leaf), Darkness, Emotional Roller Coaster, Emotional Trauma, Game Theory, Gen, Kenshin (animal crossing new leaf), Konoha Village, Leafside, Mad Hatter - Freeform, Mel (animal crossing new leaf), Multi, Nintendo - Freeform, Red String of Fate, Soul Bond, Sugarpine, Suspense, Taki (animal crossing new leaf), aika village isn't just a vacation spot anymore, animal crossing game theory, animaleese is the main language for humans, boy villager, dr shrunk, girl villager, horror story, sanctuary town, the nightmare of aika, this tale will chill you to the bone, thunderstorm, windryder1, どうぶつの森
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2018-07-29 22:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 75,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7701352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windryder1/pseuds/Windryder1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four humans --Kenshin, Mel, Taki, and Cecelia-- follow a lead to the last rumored location of tarantula antidote in the beautiful, distant town of Hana Valley.  But when their train is forced to stop on a stormy night at Aika Village, they find their journey will be filled with heart-wrenching terrors, truths, and secrets that should stay hidden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Train

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was a dark and stormy night...  
> \-----------------------------  
> To Taki, Mel, Kenshin, and Cecelia.  
> I am so, so sorry.

**CHAPTER 1: The Train**

We'd left the train station at 8pm during a light, lazy rain shower.  

I always found those to be relaxing, especially when I needed to travel.  I could happily flip open my trusty notebook, and let the genius ideas flow.  Usually, I was alone.  This time, I had a tag-along, and for once, it wasn't Mayor Kosei.  Kenshin –the only other human in our small town of Seaside aside from myself and the Mayor—stared out the window.  

I sat crosslegged in the seat with my notebook in my lap, and my blue sneakers on the floor. I listened to the rhythmic 'clakkity clak' of the train moving at an even clip through the sheets of pattering rain.  Rivulets of water rolled up the glass from wind resistance.  It was the perfect night to write a horror story—something I had never attempted before.  I clicked open my pen and set to work on my future masterpiece.  

_It was a dark and stormy night--_

“You can't start a story like that,” Kenshin stated in a bland tone.  
   
“Huh? Why not? It’s a perfectly good mood-set line.”  I asked. It seemed fine to me.

“Firstly, it begins in a passive voice.”

My eye twitched. Go figure this nerd would know that. He reads all the time. I thought my living room was book-loaded, but his is basically a library. 

“Secondly, it's plagiarism,” He folded his arms.  “Ever read a book called 'Paul Clifford?'”

Here we go; unsolicited information straight from the walking encyclopedia.  “Never heard of it.”  

He dug a paperback novel from his red backpack and handed it to me.

The spine was heavily creased from use, and bore rough edges where the paper peeled off in thin slivers.  It looked like someone had used it to prop up a table.  “Was this a lost item you forgot about?”

“I borrowed it from Chief.”

“And you just happened to have this particular book pertaining to what I'm doing on a whim right now.”

He shrugged.

I flipped it open to the first page where a black and white profile photo of a floppy-eared dog stared pensively into the distance, and noted the check-out stamp date.  This book was way over due from the 1970's from the Barksdale Public Library. I'd never heard of that town before. I frowned at the tiny print barely existing at the bottom.  “It says the original printing was in 1830.  This is public domain by now.”  I gave it back.  “Why should you care if I use that line?”

He put it away.  “It's also a dumb beginning and a trope.”

“Your face is a dumb beginning and a trope.”  

He stared at me, confused and in thought –probably one of the six emotions he'd managed to get back from Dr. Shrunk.  “That didn't make sense.”

“Throwing your backpack into the seat and calling 'dibbs!' when we got on the train doesn't make sense, either.”  I stuffed my notebook back in my satchel.

"Neither did that." 

I huffed in exasperation. I was already 100% done with this fool since he'd snatched up the window seat before I had a chance to sit down.   There were two pigs sleeping on each other taking up the seats in front of us, so that wasn't an option.  I was stuck on the isle.  I hated the isle.

I glanced to two tabby cats having a quiet conversation at the front of the car, sat back, and sighed. The little girl sitting by the opposite window from me didn't seem to care about us at all.  She simply played with her doll, tying and untying the strings of the orange hood on its head.  The color didn't match the red of its dress, but both dolly and child had matching crimson mary jane shoes.  She kicked her feet idly as she hummed a tune I'd never heard before.  It was light and bouncy, like her long, curly auburn hair.  The only item to tame them was a blue and white winter hat in the same style as the doll's.

“Aren't you two from the same town?”  A black-haired boy sitting behind us wearing a navy blue duster propped his elbows on top of our seats.  The brown buckles around his wrists clanked at the motion.  “Should you be arguing?”

“We're not arguing,” Kenshin said.  “She has a tendency to fail to see reason.”

I sent him a dagger glare worth more words of spite than could fill a thesaurus.

The pigs woke up in a mess of disoriented snorts, looked out the window, and left to the car ahead of us: the dining car.  

Finally, I had my opportunity for a window seat.  I slipped my sneakers on and gathered up my things to move, but...

The black-haired boy sniped it first.  “I'm Mayor Taki from Leafside.  Nice to meet you.”

He offered me a handshake in greeting.  I frowned, disgruntled, and sat back down.  Defeated, I accepted the gesture.  “I'm Mel.  And this is Kenshin.  We're from Seaside.”

“Where are you guys headed?”  Taki removed a box of crackers from his own backpack and started munching casually.  Talking to complete strangers seemed like normal behavior to him.

“We're on to way to pick up supplies,” I answered.  “We're out of tarantula antidote.”

Taki's face lit up with shock.  “Already?  They just started coming out.  What happened?”

Kenshin narrowed his eyes in annoyance.  “Our Reset Center mole stockpiled it under the excuse that tarantulas make their dens under ground, and so does he.”

“Yeah.  We've had a ton of them show up lately, so he called 'safety measures' on us.”

Taki offered us the box of crackers.  “Didn't your mayor tell him that wasn't allowed?”

I took the offered food.

“He tried,” Kenshin gestured lightly, “but arguing with our Resetti is like going an entire day without catching a sea bass.  It's impossible.  So, he gave up, and sent us to get more.”  

“The last three towns were out of antidote,” I added around a mouth full of crackers.

Our new guest took the snack box back once we'd each taken a handful, and folded the top, sticking it in his bag.  “My town is low on supplies, too.  Same as you, we've had a surge of tarantulas, and no one knows why.”

An excited, high pitched gasp exploded from the little girl next to us as she leaned over the arm rest of her seat.  “You guys, too?  They're all over my town!  I hate spiders! They're skittering everywhere, all gross and leggy, and I can't walk outside without thinking I'll run into one! I've been bitten three times already!”

I looked around in case anyone else wanted to join in on the once private conversation, but we four humans, and the two cats were the only ones in this car.  I was about to ask the cats if anything unusual was going on in their homes when they gave us sly looks, followed by smiles, and left to the car behind us.  “Wow, rude,” I muttered.  

“They're cats,” Kenshin shrugged.  “That's just the way they are.”

“So,” Taki leaned forward.  “I guess you heard about the only supply left.”

I nodded.  “A deer in the last town told us it was in a place called Hana Valley.”

“I'm going there, too,” The little girl scrambled over to plop herself in the seat in front of me.  The fabric of her fluffy, purple and white lolita-style dress rustled with her movement.  She shifted to sit on her knees --her small frame allowed her that luxury.  “I heard Hana Valley is really beautiful, filled with all kinds of fruit trees, and rare insects, and thousands and thousands of hybrid flowers!”  She brushed her fingers through her hair happily at her own paradise imaginings.  “My villagers would love some hybrids if I can bring some back.  Mayors are cool like that to other mayors.”

My eyes widened at this tiny girl dressed in candy colors.  “You're a mayor?  You have to be 9 years old.”

“I'm 10,” she defended.  “And I've lived here for 3 years.”

“Wow,” I blinked.  “I'd have never guessed.”

“I'm Mayor Cecelia from the town of Sugarpine,” she proclaimed proudly.

“Sugarpine?”  I pictured the entire place to be coordinated the same as her outfit; loud, mismatched, and dripping in colors.  I met a sheep in a friend's town who looked like that once.  Pietro was an amusing kick in the clown pants.

She grinned.  “I love pine trees, and I like sugar.”

“I think that's the name of an actual tree.”

“I know,” she grinned.

“It's a good name,” Kenshin chimed in.  “I'm Kenshin and this is Mel.  We're from Seaside.”

“How old are you?”  She blurted out in a buoyant tone.  “You look like grown-ups.”

“I'm 18.  She's 17.”

Taki stretched.  “I'm 17, too.  It's a good club to be in.”

“And we're all mayors!” She assumed, holding her doll in a victory pose like it was a golden tournament trophy.  

“We're not.”  Kenshin corrected.

“You guys aren't mayors?”  She laughed loudly, holding her stomach as she rolled back into Taki's side.  This little girl had no sense of personal space.  “Good luck bidding for the antidote if other towns are having the same problem we are.”

“Our Mayor sent us, because he's the only one who's caught a tarantula, and been bitten by one before,” I explained.  “He, Chief, and Freya are going to try to catch one while we're gone.  He even said Marshal wanted to help.”

“Marshal?”  Kenshin looked concerned.  “That can't possibly end well.”  

By the look in his eyes, we both easily imagined that white squirrel screaming up the nearest perfect cherry tree and throwing cherries at it like bombs while crying bloody murder for help.

The sudden noise of a thunderclap in the low clouds made me jump. Their timpani percussion filled the train car and mingled with the clatter of the thick metal wheels against the old track.  
Kenshin didn't even blink.  “It's just a storm.  We get them at home all the time.”

“Yeah, well, at home, I'm either in my own house, curled up on the couch in front of the t.v., or at the Roost.” I loved storms, but would sometimes still get spooked. I pulled it back together.  “Besides, you're not afraid of anything.”

“Really?” Taki's interest peaked.  “Nothing at all?”

He shook his head.  It was just a matter of fact.

“Oo,” he grinned.  “That means you haven't—“

Cecelia elbowed him hard in the side.  Taki caught on and clammed up.  We three knew Kenshin had to discover his emotions on his own, and who unlocked them, just like we did.  Even I didn't have all of my emotions back yet, because my joke book wasn't complete, I’d already figured out that somehow Dr. Shrunk gave them back. I'm getting close, though.  Only about seven to go.  I knew for a fact that he hadn't put Dr. Shrunk's jokes and his emotion recovery together yet, regardless of how smart he was.  Though I couldn't figure out why, after three months, Kenshin hadn't gained more of them back.  I know we're supposed to take our time, but did he not want to?

I looked past the boys to the inky black beyond the windows just in time to catch a bright flash of periwinkle lightning.  It's skeletal fingers lit up the sky.  For that split second, I saw the ocean far below us, and a town in the distance.  We were crossing a trestle to another island.  The town's dim, pin points of orange light filtering through the trees did not send a welcoming vibe.  

I hoped it wasn't Hana Valley.

The train entered the murky brume of the new island.  Tall, old trees arched over the tracks, plunging us into an organic tunnel of darkness.

Suddenly, the train screeched to a halt with such force that it loosened luggage from the overhead compartment racks, and sent us careening into one another.  Sparks shot out from the wheels as metal ground against metal.  The lights flickered.

“Ooww,” Cecelia whined, holding her head.  She'd been thrown forward, but Taki caught her as he was tossed from his seat.  

I had slammed into Kenshin, who groaned in pain from being pinned against the window.  We all climbed back to our seats.  

“Is everyone all right?”  Kenshin spoke up first.

“Yeah,” I cringed from pain in my shoulder.  “Glad I wasn't in the window seat after all.  You ok?”

He nodded.  “My spleen will heal.”

“You broke my fall.”

“Glad I could help.”

The threatening rumble of thunder blew open the sky overhead as the train car filled with the sound of the torrential downpour.  Silver darts needled the windows.  I couldn't help but imagine them trying to break through.  
   
Taki rubbed at his back.  “We're in one piece, so I don't think we derailed.”  He picked up his crunched backpack.  “Awe man, Cecelia, you landed on my box of crackers.”

“It hurt!” she shot back.  “And that's 'Mayor' Cecelia.”  She pouted.  She'd worked too hard to be denied the right of that title.

At that moment, the cheerful notification tone chimed happily through the car –a complete opposite of the opposing atmosphere of the outside and inside world.  The conductor's steady voice came across the loud speaker in Animaleese.  “We apologize for the sudden stop.  The tracks are blocked by downed trees at the tunnel entrance, and will take some time to remove.  Any large animals willing to help, please report to the front car for instructions.  All Humans, please remain inside the train for your own safety.”

“Our own safety?”  I repeated quietly, my curiosity piqued. I'd never been told an area was unsafe—aside from being careful about the jellyfish in the ocean, of course.

The conductor continued.  “If you've sustained injuries, please report to the rear car for medical assistance.  A docent will be moving from car to car looking for anyone in need of help.  We'll be underway as soon as possible.  Please remain calm.  We are offering free snacks in the dining car.  Thank you for your patience.”

Our little space swelled with the din of the thunderstorm. 

Taki planted both hands against the cool glass to get a better look outside.  A lightning flash soon provided that with a sonic boom in accompaniment.  He scooted back.  “Oh man...  I hope we're not where I think we are.”

“It's that town we saw from the trestle right?”  I pushed my hair out of my eyes.  “Have you been here before?”

“No,” he took on the same serious mien as Kenshin often wore, “but I just remembered something one of the bunnies in the town of Mibu told me when I asked about Hana Valley –before you got on the train.  They said in order to get there, we needed to pass by...” his words caught in his throat, and he swallowed past the lump that had formed to block them, “...Aika Village.

A tiny squeak of fear escaped Cecelia.  She clutched her doll closely. 

Kenshin and I both stared at them, confused by their reactions.  They looked like they were about to be attacked by zombies.  “What's Aika Village?”  Kenshin asked plainly.

"What's Aika Village?" her jaw dropped and her green eyes widened in disbelief.  “You don't know about Aika Village?”  Cecelia wedged herself between us, practically sitting on his lap. “How do you not know about Aika?  Where have you been?  Under a rock?  How long have you lived in your town?!”

“Eight months,” I answered. 

“Three months,” Kenshin said. 

“And no one's mentioned this at all?”  Taki matched the little mayor's shock. 

Kenshin shook his head.  

“Well, this one time when I was working at the cafe,” I interjected, “I heard one of our former cranky villagers say something about Mayor Kosei burying pitfalls around Monty's house.  Freya had said, 'Pitfalls are just a nuisance prank.  He isn't anywhere near bad enough to be sent to Aika.  Do not joke about that.'  The cranky villager just looked at me and went back to his coffee.  It was weird.”  

Cecelia moved to sit next to Taki so she could be the bearer of knowledge to us newbs.  She husked her voice to be as creepy as possible.  “Aika Village is where Animals send Humans to disappear.”

Taki snatched her doll away and stood on the seat, holding it out of reach. 

“Hey!” She cried out.

“Disappear?”  I watched him climb over the seat, keeping the doll out of reach of the grabby hands of the whining girl.  

Taki continued playing keep-away to her insistent demands of 'Give it back! Mayor Taki!  I hate you forever!'  “Aika Village is where they send the worst of our kind.  People who have done horrible things to other humans and animals, like torture, painful pranks, and even bloodshed, are exiled there.”  He held the doll like a victim in both hands above his head.  “People who are too dangerous to be helped by any other Sanctuary Towns are brought there to rot in isolation from the rest of us, and left to exist in darkness.”  

She threw her fist into his gut with a mighty 'hiyah!'

He coughed, dropping the doll.  “Ok, ok, I give.”  He let her finally snare her prize to hug it tightly, and retook his seat.

 “Meanie.”  She slugged him in the arm for added revenge, stuck her tongue out at him, and sat between the two of us again, like we could protect her and her doll.  “It's supposed to be a Sanctuary Town that fixes humans.  Those give me a bad feeling, but they're usually ok to stop in."  
   
Taki folded his arms. “Aika Village was the first Sanctuary Town ever built.  It's also the worst one.  No one knows what happened there to earn it that title."

"Sometimes people can come back from a Sanctuary Town," Cecelia continued, "but no one has ever come back from Aika Village.  If you're brought there, you're there forever.”

I swallowed hard around my racing heart.  “F-forever?”

Her face lit up in a mischievous grin, forcing me to lean back slightly.  "For-ever."

"Come on, Cecelia, you're scaring her," he chuckled.

“Mayor Cecelia,” She corrected him.

"I-I'm not scared," I defended, but all three saw through my false bravado.

He continued, taking on a serious tone to show he wasn't exaggerating or fooling around.  "She's right, though. According to all the stories, trains don't stop there unless they're dropping off a human.  And that human,” Taki held the three of us in the steel of his dark blue gaze, “can never leave.”

I wiped the condensation off the glass with the sleeve of my blue shirt.  Lightning exposed the harsh silhouette of an old train station slightly behind us.  It held a cracked, weathered sign bearing characters in a language I couldn't read.  “That's why they want us to stay inside,” I muttered. 

Kenshin moved to the other seat and cleared his own area of the window to see. He peered into the darkness until the lightning could aid him, then slowly returned his attention to his companions.  He may not be able to feel fear, but he could recognize a dangerous situation when he was in one, and that sign was in a language he could read.  “You said trains don't stop there...but I think we just did.”

\----------

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTES: I had to draw the group. :) --11/24/2017. 
> 
> To the creator of Aika Village: I bow to you in humble thanks. Credit for the village stays with you. Thank you for allowing fans the freedom of interpretation for the meaning behind your town. My sincerest and deepest thanks. If you find this, I hope you can enjoy. Thank you.  
> Aika Village dream code (as of 11/24/2017) - 2D00-002A-49A0
> 
> Kenshin and Mel from Seaside are based on Yu and Mel are from my ACNL town of Junes (headed by Mayor Yosuke. -yes, I'm a P4 fan. It holds a special meaning for me. :) One of my friends has Inaba, the other has the Amagi Inn, and I have Junes.) 
> 
> If you want to visit my town, I've saved it in early Nov. during a rainy 8am morning. I love the rain, and 8am is my favorite music next to 11pm. (Dream code: 5D00-0065-E2B6)
> 
> These are all original characters. The towns of "Sugarpine," "Leafside," "Seaside," "Maple Point," and "Hana Valley" are generic names I picked at random. Any similarities to existing towns and characters are purely coincidental.
> 
> (The images I use are more to help evoke the sense and imagery I'm going for in a chapter rather than of the characters themselves. Sometimes I can't find the original source, so I post the ones that I can. Please follow the artists and support them.)
> 
> I hope you're enjoying it so far. Please R&R and continue with the adventure. I promise you, this story gets pretty grim...and better. :) Thank you very much. :D
> 
> (If you want to spoil yourself with the Villager Theory, and the Dr. Shrunk Theory, I'll leave the links here. The choice to walk through those doors is yours.)
> 
> Dr. Shrunk Theory: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6061026  
> Villager Theory: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6060445
> 
> (Please follow these artists shown in the title collage and support them)  
> ("Joker Mask" Ichimatsu by Arkarts: http://arkarts.deviantart.com/art/Ichimatsu-689854798)  
> ("Cecelia" Smile by Sundayshu -- http://sundayshu.deviantart.com/art/Smile-682424685 )


	2. The Invaders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go from bad to worse when Mel, Cecelia, Kenshin, and Taki are forced to cross the boundary into Aika Village.

**CHAPTER 2: The Invaders**

We listened to the muted yelling of commands by one of the larger animals coordinating the others to move the debris. 

Only minutes had passed, but for me, knowing that a place of such horror existed beyond the safe walls of the train, it felt like an hour.

After a few moments, the orders from outside stopped.  

“Do you think they're done already?” Cecelia asked.  
   
I looked out the window.  I could make out the end of one last fallen tree blocking our path far up ahead, but barely.  However, there were no animals trying to remove it.  “If they are, they're out of sight.”

Kenshin made his way to the car door and peeked out the window, but the sheets of rain made it difficult to distinguish any clear figures beyond the railway fence separating the tracks from the town. He grabbed the door handle to slide it open.

“Wait, what are you doing? Y-you can’t go out there. They specifically said all Humans need to stay inside the train. Last I checked, we’re Humans.”

He understood the source of my fear, though he couldn’t feel it himself. "They could use an extra pair of hands to move the debris.  The faster we get out of here, the faster we can get to Hana valley to get the antidote."

"Relax, Mel," Taki shielded his own fear behind a supporting smile. As mayor, he was accustomed to reassuring his townsfolk when they were in distress about any situation.  "We're not inside the town limits. We're on the tracks.  As long as we stay on the tracks, we'll be fine.  This should be safe."

"But what if it's not fine?  What if it's not safe?"  Cecelia leaned over a seat back.  "What if whatever knocked the trees over is still out there waiting to get anyone that leaves this train?"

"The trees probably got knocked over by the storm." Kenshin slid the door open.  A push of rain drove their daggers into the car.

"Kenshin," I locked eyes with him, pleading. "Please, don't go out there."

He gave me a reassuring, small smile.  “Don't worry.  We'll be fine.”

"Yeah, you girls should stay here if you're that scared."  Taki said.  He followed Kenshin outside and closed the door.

"Taki, wait!" Cecelia reached out. "Stupid boys!" She cursed.  

"Wha--" My eyes narrowed.  "What do you mean 'you girls?'" I balled up my fist.  "I don't care if he is a mayor.  The second he gets back, I'm gonna punch him in the—“

A loud thud against the door to the forward car cut me off.  I yelped in surprise.  Cecelia and I jumped when another followed, then another, and another. Then it suddenly went quiet--far too quiet.  It made the hairs on my skin prickle.  I glanced to the smaller mayor.  

The little girl's fingers trembled as she clutched her doll closer to her chest.  Her eyes widened, and in a flash of lightning, showed how pale her complexion had become. I slowly inched my gaze back to the door, my heart pounding. Yet all that met us was the back of the empty car.  
   
I exhaled.  “It was probably just an animal trying to get inside, or...or just the wind,” I tried to disarm the tense vibe.  

“Does the wind have legs?” she whimpered. “I don't like wind with legs.”

Legs?  I stared at the window.  Something reached up slowly into view like a snake about to strike.  One thick, hairy, long black insect leg ticked against the glass.  Three more from different sources joined it.  

My throat locked the scream inside in my chest.  My eyes flicked to the slim indentation in the door that allowed someone to easily slide it open or closed.  As far as I could tell, it didn't have a lock.  

The door rattled against the frame as the thing—or things—behind it attempted to push it open.  

I stepped back with Cecelia.  I couldn't find the strength to look away, not even for an escape.  

The rattling stopped.  

I held my breath in the suffocating stillness. 

The door slowly scraped open. Two of the legs protrude through. 

Those legs connected to a tarantula four times the size of its normal counterpart.

And I. Hate. Spiders.

“Go away!”  Cecelia shouted.  She dropped her doll.  She hastily dug through the pockets of her dress for the small collection of leaves kept there, and thrust her hand out with a gold leaf between her fingers.  In a thought, it retook its original form of a golden slingshot.  She placed three small bearings into the sling, pulled it back, and let it fly.  

One of them hit their mark, while the other two ricocheted around the car. 

I ducked, covering my head.  One of the stray bearings struck the protruding legs once more.  The giant tarantula screeched and recoiled back.  

“Nice shot,” I praised, impressed.  We almost got hit, but I could let this one go. 

“Thanks,” she smiled proudly.  “I never miss.”

I risked a smile.

The door suddenly ripped open against the frame.  Out poured not one, but three giant, hairy, angry tarantulas. 

I screamed. 

Cecelia fired off another round of bearings, nailing the lead spider in the eyes.  The other two flanked it, scrambling over the seats directly for us.  

I ran for the other door and thrust it open.  “Come on!”  I yelled.  We dashed through, and I slammed the door closed behind us.  The spiders rammed into it with a loud 'thud.'  We leaped to the soaked ground.  

The moment my feet touched the gravel, I snared her hand and pulled her toward the front of the train.  We had to get to Kenshin and Taki, and help move all that debris so we could get out of this wretched place.

“Taki!”  I yelled out as soon as I caught sight of his rain-soaked silhouette.  His jacket fluttered in the wind.  Only instead of working, he was running right for me.  We hadn't reached the front of the train yet, but the air was still void of any commands.  

“Mel! Get back in the car!” Fear laced his voice.  “Get away from here, now!”

“No way!” Cecelia shook her head.  “There's spiders in there!  We were almost eaten alive!”

“Where's Kenshin?”  I demanded, betraying worry for my friend. If he'd met up with those mutant arachnids, he'd be alone, even if he did have his ax to defend himself.  
   
“He was right behind me,” Taki said.

The three of us stared toward the engine. Thunder crashed overhead to a judgmental flash of lightning.  We were soaked through to the skin from the rain, but by this point, we didn't care.

Seconds later, another human form emerged in a full run from the rainy fog.  A golden ax gripped in his right hand.  

I exhaled in relief.  Kenshin. Thank goodness he was all right. 

“The animals,” Kenshin panted, “they're all...”

Cecelia covered her mouth beneath wide, shocked green eyes.  “Don't say they're—“  
“Unconscious,” Taki swallowed to wet his dry throat and free up his voice.  It sounded like it barely worked.  “They...They—“

“Everyone was down when we got there.  The tarantulas got to them.”  Kenshin saved his floundering new friend.  His expression showed concern, caution, and determination, but lacked fear.  

The rest of us envied him.

I noticed Taki's fist clenched and visibly shaking.  What he'd seen disturbed him, and I knew that the images burned into his mind would haunt his dreams.  He would never be able to forget it. 

“We're not done here, guys!” Cecelia pointed to our right.

The staccato clicking of multiple pairs of legs against the rocks edging the tracks closed in.  They bombarded us from both directions.  I stepped back as four more climbed across the top of the train car.  

We were surrounded. 

Kenshin lifted the ax in defense.   
   
Cecelia pushed up the sleeves of her dress and held her slingshot ready.  “There's too many of them!" She switched her aim repeatedly, trying to find the right point to unleash another barrage of bearings.  No matter which direction she fired, others would swarm in while she reloaded.  “I know I never miss, but this is testing even my skills.”

“We can't fight them off,” Taki grabbed my hand. “We need to run.”

“This way,” Kenshin ran for the fence directly behind us.  He wrapped his arm around Cecelia and lifted her up before she could fire off another round into the spider horde. 

She flailed her arms. “No!  Not there!” she shrieked.  “Don't cross the boundary!  I don't wanna go in there!” 

“We have no choice!” Kenshin argued.  He set her down on the other side.  

“You idiot, do you realize what you've done?!”

Taki and I followed.  I placed my hands on the old wooden fence...The same fence that separated the nightmares of Aika Village from the safety zone of the tracks.  I recalled what Cecelia had said earlier on the train: No one has ever come back from Aika.  If you're brought there, you're there forever.  

We were over that fence and running through the muddy forest before I could argue.  I felt my heart sink to my stomach.  We were trapped in Aika Village at night in a thunderstorm.  Lightning illuminated the ghostly skeletons of the trees reaching their gnarled fingers toward the clouds, and we were running right into its heart.

I dug through the pocket of my jeans and pulled out a silver leaf.  At a thought of 'change,' the leaf transformed and my hand clenched around the handle of a shovel.

“A shovel?” Cecelia balked after Kenshin set her down to run.  “What about your ax or your slingshot?!” 

“I suck at the slingshot, and my ax has three more uses before it breaks, ok?!” I snapped in defense.  “I'm just the landscape architect!”

“Less talk, more run.”  Taki ordered.

We reached a small clearing filled with dead plants.  The petrichor of earth and decay leached up from the ground.

Kenshin releafed his ax, stuck it back into his pocket, and removed another silver leaf.  He held it out and focused easily on the mental command to transform it into a bug net.  He skid to a halt and waited until the closest tarantula was in range, then when it leaped to strike, he swept the net across the air, snaring his prey.  Once within the net, he reached in and at the same moment, summoned the 'leafing' command. He withdrew a harmless black leaf.  Confused, he looked it over.  “Black?”  He shrugged and tucked it into his pocket.  The color could be fret over later. “That’s weird.”

Taki joined him.  “Boy, it's a good thing you can't feel fear.  We need to stall for time.  Any ideas?”

“Do you have anything substantial?”  Kenshin asked. 

“I...Yeah!” He withdrew a green leaf from his jacket pocket and flicked it at the attackers.  The second it left his fingers, it 'poofed' into its material form and slammed down on a cluster of tarantulas, crushing them instantly.  Their legs twitched from beneath it.  

“A refrigerator?”  My jaw hit the floor.  “Where did you get that?”

“I shook it out of a tree before I left home and never had the chance to sell it.” 

“Huh,” Kenshin mused.  “Mind if I come back for that?”

“Sure,” Taki shrugged.  “It's all yours.”

Cecelia frowned.  “I want a refrigerator. All I ever get are elephant slides.”

“Forget the fridge!” I yelled.  “If we don't get away from them, we won't have to worry about breathing, let alone storage space!”  

The four of us continued running into the Village with a swarm of tarantulas filling the black woods behind us.  We passed a small house with darkened windows, chipped paint, and a busted-in door.  We couldn't hide there.  The horde would be on us in seconds.  This was one hell of a horrid experience for my first time dealing with one of the two most feared insects in the world.  I prayed I wouldn't run into the second one.

I heard the squish of my companions' shoes pounding into the mud and dead grass along with mine.  Lightning scared the darkness away to a stark blue reality, illuminating more spiders frothing in from the sides.  What did we do to deserve this wrath?  Where are they all coming from?!  I wanted to scream.  

“Up ahead!”  Kenshin announced.

Golden lights winked into existence through the rain.  Finally!  We ran up the short steps to the porch, and hauled open the front door.  Kenshin locked it behind us.  A moment later, we heard the 'thump' of the tarantulas ramming their bodies against it to break it down.  The door held.  We held our breaths as the insistent pounding lessened and finally ceased. 

The silence that consumed us made my ears ring.  Only the howling of the wind and percussion of the thunderstorm broke it.  

Kenshin peeked through the front window curtain.  “They're gone.”

I held onto the security of my shovel anyway.  “Why were they chasing us?”  

“We ran,” Taki sat on a black-cushioned seat. “They hate that.”

“If we hadn't run, we'd be fine?”  Cecelia pocketed her slingshot.

Kenshin shook his head.  “These are bigger, and they produce black leaves.  That's abnormal.”  He held out his catch as proof.  “I don't think we'd simply pass out it we got bit. And apparently standing still doesn't matter to them.”

“Why did you catch one?”  I shrunk away from him like he held a bottle of poison.  
“Because it's different.  If these are the tarantulas that keep attacking other towns, then Blathers can analyze it.”

“Good idea,” Taki said.  “We can share his findings with the other towns.”

Cecelia backed up.  “Ok, but...where are we?”  The floorboards creaked beneath her light steps.  She turned around to see where we'd taken shelter.  “Who's house is this?”

We moved further into the main living room of the house.  It seemed normal enough –standard furniture, unimpressive light fixtures, sparse wall decor... It seemed like any other home you'd find in any other town.  Three doorways lead to a room in the back, and to the left and right.  Soft light bled out from the one to the left, but the entrance to the back room was blocked by a wide dresser.  

Taki stood and removed the leaf representing his golden slingshot.  It regained its form as he loaded it with a small bead from his other pocket.  “We should check this place out –make sure we're alone.”  

We each removed our favored tools –me ready to wield my shovel like a baseball bat at the first unfamiliar thing that moved, Kenshin with his ax, and Cecelia and Taki with their slingshots.  
   
“Do you have the full gold collection?”  Cecelia tried to lighten the mood.  Her heart still hadn't settled down.  “L-lucky.”

“Eh.  I've been at this a while,” Taki said.  He recognized what the little girl attempted to do, and perpetuated her desire to calm the group.  “I lost my gold fishing rod once.”

“How?” She asked, sticking close to him as we walked through the house.  

“I caught a shark, but it pulled it out of my hands.”

“You didn't go in after it?”

“Uh...I, ...no. No, I didn't.”  He was glad he could hide his embarrassment behind their current search.  “I had to ask Pascal to get it for me.  Took three of my scallops to trade for it back.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, wanting to calm down as much as the others.  “That sounds like Pascal, all right.  He visits Leafside, too?”

“Occasionally.  I was lucky he showed up that day,” he chuckled. 

“Were you afraid of the sharks?” Cecelia wheedled.  

Taki avoided eye contact.  “Sure.  Let's go with that.” 

Kenshin clicked on the light to the room on the right.  We stood in the doorway, staring at the single item within: a black grand piano.  Sheet music littered the floor like dead leaves. The black notes inked onto the pages filled the room with their own silent tune. 

My fingers tightened around my shovel handle.  I had one just like this in my own living room—made by the same manufacturer, too. I'd bought it at the T.I.Y because of a feeling of nostalgia I couldn't place.  When I releafed it at home and sat in front of the clean black and white keys, somehow I already knew how to play it.  I was up the whole night simply playing songs that took form in my mind.  It was painful, amazing, confusing, and fulfilling.  

“No one's in here,” I uttered.  

“Let's check the rest of the house,” Kenshin said.  He and the other two left.  

I moved up to the piano, careful not to tread on any of the sheet music, and lifted the lid over the keys.

They shone clean in the single light of the room, bright, inviting, begging to be played.  I wondered how clear the strike of the hammer against the strings would be.  My hand moved by another force until it hovered over 'F' above middle 'C.' I felt compelled to play it.  I had to.  It was my duty, my training, my way of life.  Play it. Play it now.  Play it perfectly. Let the sound fill this room and ring out in stale, robotic technique.   _Play it..._

My finger lowered centimeters over the key...

_Play it..._

_Play it..._

_Play it..._

“Mel?”

My hand froze at Kenshin's voice.  I let my hand fall to my side and rubbed my head.  It felt fuzzy, like I'd zoned into a daydream for too long.  “Yeah.  Coming.”  What was I doing?  "That was weird."

I closed the lid and left to join the others in the opposite side room. Thankfully, it, too, was clear of any living beings –animal or otherwise.  

However, what caught Cecelia's attention was a doll sitting on a table next to a birthday cake.  It looked like this room was recently decorated for a party that never happened.

She gasped happily and hurried to scoop up the doll and hug it close, like finding an old friend.  It looked exactly like the one she'd been forced to abandon on the train.  A rush of cold air fluttered the curtains on the single window, making her shiver and hug the doll closer.  

“That belongs to someone else, Cecelia. You can't just take it.” I said.

“It wants to be with me,” she mumbled.  “I can't leave it here alone.”  Her voice held a slight weakened squeak.  “It's cold here.”

I rested my hand on her shoulder in sympathy.  Her skin felt chilled.  The poor girl must still be scared, and without her own toy, needed the security.  “Just leave it here when we go back, ok?”  

She nodded and walked out of the room with me. The light was gone from her eyes.  I felt like she nodded simply to placate me.

“Doesn't look like anyone's home.” Kenshin leafed his ax and put it back in his pocket.  “I think we're safe for now.  We can stay here until the storm clears up, and then head back to the train.” 

I dropped wearily into a chair and pulled at my wet clothes.  “I wish I hadn't cleaned out my pockets before we left. I was hoping to do some shopping on our trip for stuff we never see in Seaside.”   I looked up, finally taking in the make of the furniture more closely. “Wait a sec... This is a human's house.” Animal furniture was always a different size to fit the animal—small for squirrels, ducks, hamsters, cats, ect, and larger for bears, wolves, ect.  It was fun to find a place to sit when visiting the smaller villagers.  I always felt like a giant in their homes, and far too small in the others.

Cecelia turned on the television in the corner and clicked the remote through a few channels.  “Nothing but static.  It's not hooked up to grid at all.  And there's no computer." She pouted. "Nuts."

“This whole town might be off the grid,” Kenshin guessed.

Taki lifted a wood-framed photo of a family –a mother, a father, and a little girl dressed like the doll cradled protectively in Cecelia's arms.  He brushed dust from the glass with his thumb.  The background was of the town tree.  It was still small, and the area around them looked warm and inviting with colorful roses and perfect peach trees. “A family?  What kind of family would want to live here?”

“The kind who thought they had a chance.”  

All four of us felt our hearts leap into our throats at the new gruff voice cutting in.  We weren't alone.

The intimidating figure of a tall animal filled the open doorway.  A key dangled from his claws.  The lone light in the living room glint in the yellow spheres of his predator eyes to the bass crash of thunder beating the house.  

The white wolf stared us down.  “I don't recognize you.” He stepped in, dripping water onto the floor beneath his bare paws.  His motions easily betrayed his full confidence in himself and his strength.  His lip curled up to show the threat of his incisors.  “Who the hell are you, and why are you in my house?”  He held his glare as his arm slowly bent at the hock of the elbow to the stiffening of his claws.  “You have five seconds to answer, Humans.  Five...four...three...two...”

\-------

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leafing, releafing, deleafing -- terms used to transform objects into easily-carried leaves. This is a common skill that everyone has; animal and human alike. Much like the instant mail delivery service, no one questions it. That's just life.  
> Note: I actually do play the piano IRL.


	3. The Keeper of Aika

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The four unluckiest humans in the world meet the wolf in charge of the village. Things become tense, and that leads to an escape into the heart of Aika Village.

**CHAPTER 3: The Keeper of Aika**

“Wait!” Cecelia burst out. “We didn't mean to crash your house!” Large tears slipped from her eyes. “We're sorry. Please don't make us go back out there!”

The wolf strode forward. He lowered his arm, but kept his claws at the ready. Too much of his existence in this town taught him to never let his guard down, or trust at the first flow of alligator tears. His footsteps were loud against the creaky old wood-board floor as he stepped toward us and we backed away. The claws of his toes scraped against the wood. 

His yellow eyes narrowed at the shovel in my trembling hands. “They allowed you to keep your tools?” his bass voice growled. “You mustn't be much of a threat, then. Why would the Rovers bother me with you?” He grumped. 

“The Rovers?” Kenshin repeated curiously. He'd never heard of a group going by that title before. He only knew one Rover, and that was the cat he'd met on the train when he moved to Seaside.

“N-no one brought us here,” I volunteered. “We were attacked and—“

“Shut up!” The wolf howled. He put the key into the pocket of his button up shirt. The buttons looked like one flex of the muscles beneath would rend them from their threads. “Tell me.” He stepped up close to me, leaning down to be at face level. “What crime did you commit? Did you pull a cruel prank? Steal from the Nooks? Torture smaller animals for pleasure?” He tapped directly over my heart, “End someone's breath?”

I couldn't answer. His aura was crushing, and as dark as the loathing in his voice. How could anyone do such monstrous things? I shook my head from side to side.

“W-we didn't...commit anything.” Sweat beaded on Taki's brow. “We're not supposed to be here.”

“That's what they all say,” The wolf rolled his eyes. He backed up. 

“All?” He hated the sound of that. “There aren't really other humans here, are there? That's just a story to scare us...right?”

The wolf remained silent.

“Right?” Taki swallowed, hating the mute answer.

“We're serious.” Kenshin spoke up. He remained strong when the rest of us wanted to pee our pants. “We were forced into this town by a tarantula horde that attacked our train. We had no other choice but to run.”

“All we want is to get out of here,” I blurted out before thinking. 

The wolf moved inches away from Kenshin, glowering down. Though Kenshin was tall, the wolf easily breached two meters. He bore his teeth again, glinting with saliva. 

Kenshin knew he was in a dangerous situation. He held the gold leaf in his hand, ready to deleaf the tool as soon as his or the other humans' lives were in danger. 

“You,” the wolf sniffed him. “don't fear me as they do. The stench of their terror burns my nostrils, but you are calm. Still,” his eyes flicked to the gold leaf, then back, “you recognize a threat.” He 'humphed' loudly, then laughed. The sound was coarse, like a wire brushed scratched along rough metal. He moved in a flash, gripping Kenshin's shirt in his fist and hauling the other to his toes.  

“Kenshin...” I squeaked.

His hot breath melted over Kenshin's face. “What do you feel? Do you feel remorse? Regret? Empathy? Compassion? Love?”

A grunted effort left Kenshin as he pulled at his collar to keep it from choking him. “Are you the mayor of this town?” he asked, completely avoiding the questions, mostly because he wasn't sure how to answer them. 

The wolf's gaze lingered before letting him go. “I'm the Keeper. There hasn't been need for a mayor in years.”  

I bit my lip, forcing bravery to confront an animal who could easily crush my face in his paw. “This is a human's house. You're a wolf. Wh-why did you call it...your house?” 

He turned to stare at me. 

“That piano...” I continued, “the music on the floor, it's—“

“None of your business, Human!” the white wolf snapped at me. 

I reached back instinctively for the nearest hand to clasp.

Taki squeezed my palm. I held on, refusing to let go. The contact seemed to bolster his courage as well. 

“Ok,” he held up one hand. “We're all a little on edge here. Why don't we start over?” he releafed his slingshot as a gesture of good will. “I'm Mayor Taki of Leafside,” This is Cecelia, Mayor of Sugarpine, and Mel and Kenshin are from Seaside. Our train had to stop because of downed trees. On my honor as Mayor, I swear to you we're telling the truth. We mean no ill intention, and we are certainly not criminals. The only crime I've committed is telling bad puns,” he chuckled, trying feebly to disarm the dangerous atmosphere. “U-unless bad puns are worthy of sentencing to this place.” 

The failed mirth dissolved against the wolf's cranky shield. “Bad puns are worthy of a beating. Not imprisonment.” Annoyed with the humans, he moved over to a desk against the wall. 

“Then you underst—“

“One more sound out of any of you, and I'll rip your tongue out.” He removed a notebook from the middle drawer and flipped through it, scanning for new names. 

Cecelia scooted over to lean against Kenshin. He wrapped his arm around her in comfort.   
She'd been silent this whole time, which I found to be a little odd. Cecelia spoke her mind. Now, she reminded me of a mouse nervous around a coiled trap.

I still hadn't let go of Taki's hand, and it didn't feel like he would let me.

I wanted out of this house now. That animal looked ready to tear our limbs off like dry bread sticks. On rare occasions, the differences between my kind and animal kind would be as stark as a full moon's light against fresh snow. Any one of them could hurt me, Kenshin, or Kosei if they wanted. They had claws, teeth, quills, venom... and we had...nothing. Then the moment would pass as I'd shake my head. We were all from the same world. We were the same. The animals would never harm us. We were friends. 

Right now, that wolf was bringing all those thoughts back—painting a clear line in just how different we are.

Finally, he closed the book. “You're not on my list.” He seemed to relax slightly. 

“See?” Taki risked. “Just like we said. We're victims of circumstance. We'll just be on our way, then.” He eased forward, pulling me with him. 

The wolf moved so fast, I barely had time to exhale. In that second, he'd spanned the distance across the room, rammed his paw into Taki's chest, and slammed him up against the wall. The impact rattled the single picture hanging cooked on a nail. 

I noticed that he quickly reached up to straighten the picture without ever taking his eyes from his prey. Why would he care about something like that?

Taki grunted at the pressure of the wolf's warm paw pressing his head against the plaster.   
“You'll set foot outside this house when I tell you. Not before,” he ordered. 

“Stop it!” I yelled, holding up my shovel. “Let him go!” 

After a moment of piercing his command through, he let his 'guest' go. 

Taki rubbed at his left temple. “There's no reason,” he panted, trying to keep his diplomatic training, but losing. “To act that way. We're not your enemies.”

“You're Humans. That's reason enough.” His eyes flicked to me. 

I raised the shovel in defense, clenching my jaw and breathing hard through the fear.

“You'll turn on your own kind in a heartbeat if it suits you. Your pathetic species disgusts me.” He opened a side drawer on the desk and pulled out another skeleton key. “They should have left you all there to rot.”

I was too confused and scared to ask for any clarification. Right now I wanted to take my friends and run and forget this place ever existed.

Cecelia's lip quivered. “Why are you being so mean?” she muttered, hugging the doll in the red dress. “What happened to you? You used to be funny, Fang.”

The wolf froze. He turned slowly to stare at the little girl. “How did you know my name?” He finally noticed the doll in her arms and his vengeful tone returned, this time backed with anger. “You're a thief! Drop it! Now!”

“No,” She shook her head, locks of her wet red hair throwing droplets of water. “It's mine!” 

“Cecelia,” I warned. If she didn't stop, this wolf would redecorate the room with our blood. 

Fang reached for her, but she dodged. He chased her around the room, swiping to snare the doll on his claw, but she avoided him. 

“No! You're not hearing me, Fang! You never hear me!” Overcome from the events, she ran for the front door, and disappeared into the storm. 

Fang's features shifted slightly to shock. The way she addressed him with familiarity seemed almost like he'd just betrayed her. 

“Cecelia!” Kenshin yelled. He ran after her. She couldn't be left alone in a place like this. If they lost sight of her, she could disappear into this village for good.

Taki took his chance to deleaf his slingshot and fired a pebble from his pocket at the wolf. It struck the large animal's cheek, causing him to recoil from pain. The impact, however, had replaced the momentary confusion with anger. The feral eyes that met with ours chilled me more than the cold air. 

“Run!” Taki yelled. 

We used that moment to escape back into the small clearing flanking the house. 

My breath froze in my lungs as the rain lashed at us.

A Long low howl pierced the rain, the darkness, through our souls. 

My legs wanted to follow suit with my breath, to freeze up from the sound that tried to pull my body to the sod. 

I kept my eyes on the back of Taki's head. Seeing another person helped to keep me going when it felt like the ground would swallow me up. We hurried through rows of perfect roses and perfect peach trees—the only signs of anything living.

I was wrong. 

Out of the shrubs burst dozens of mutant arachnids to join the chase. 

“Tarantulas!” 

I heard the snap of sticks in the darkness beneath a heavy weight. My dilated pupils strained to make out the shifting shadowy forms in the brush. The thundering in my ears seemed louder than the angered sky spitting out bolts of lightning across the clouded ceiling.

Taki grabbed my hand, pulling me to the south until we reached a river. We hurried along the rocky banks, sliding in the mud. 

The rapid footfalls were closer, now, so close I felt like the large wolf would leap from the trees at any second, jaws open and ready to stain his fur red. 

“There's a bridge!” He gripped my hand tighter, making sure not to lose me. 

My sneakers threatened to slip on the wet gray stones. 

We made it to the other side and turned around. 

Fang stopped at the foot of the bridge. Behind him, so did the spiders. They skittered at the edge of the river, but didn't try to attack the wolf, or scramble across the bridge.

We panted to catch our breath. Rain drops peppered the river.

Fang pulled the key from his pocket and tossed it toward us. It pinged against the cold stone and came to rest in the dirt on the other side. 

We both looked to it, then back to the wolf. Taki steeled his resolve and stepped forward to pick up the key. It was old, made of iron, and weighed heavy in his palm. 

“There is only one bridge!” he snarled as he moved away to blend into the stormy night. “Remember its location. And avoid the humans as long as you can.” Despite the shade of his fur, he melted into the ominous darkness of the grove of perfect peach trees.

What exactly did he mean by that? I wanted to ask, but in reality, I didn't want to know the gory details. My imagination did enough damage.

We watched as the spiders dispersed into the shadows between throbs of lighting, listening to the 'tick' of their legs rattling against their bodies until they were gone, and we existed in silence. The winds moaned through the trees. 

“Why didn't they chase us over the bridge?” I pushed my long hair out of my face. 

“I don't know,” Taki frowned. “Let's be glad they didn't, though, all right?”

I nodded. “Yeah,” I fought to calm my racing heart. “Small victories.”

Taki opened his palm to stare at the key. Whatever this was used for, Fang gave it to them on purpose. “Let's find Kenshin and Cecelia and get back to the train. Hopefully the animals will be all right and have the tracks cleared.”

“We split up,” I lamented. “That's bad.”

Taki rubbed at the sore spot on his head. “Yeah. I've seen those movies. Never split the party.”

I noticed his action. “Are you ok? I mean, he did try to throw you through a wall.”

“I'm fine. I've had worse.”

“Worse than a wall?” I kept speaking to try to save my sanity and hope.

“I've fallen into my town's Resetti den before.”

“Did he leave the cover open?”

He shook his head in a negative. “I was going out for a walk to catch some bugs at night and didn't watch where I was going and stepped in a pitfall. It was buried at a point where the mole's tunnel skimmed the surface. My weight broke clean through the dirt.”

“Sounds like that must have made him really mad.”

“'Mad' is putting it mildly.” 

“H-how long have you lived in Leafside?” I tried to keep my head by continuing the conversation.

“Five years. I've been Mayor for four. I moved from another town and accepted the position.”

“Oh. Where was it?” 

“It was more inland...” he paused, fighting to recall anything he could about his previous town –the smell, the layout, the town fruit, the villagers—but all he could see were blurry images. He chuckled slightly. “I don't really remember. I guess time dulled my memory. I was happy there, though.” He looked to me. “What about you? Where did you live before you moved to Seaside?”

“I...lived with Mom.” I answered almost robotically. “I don't really recall much. It's more a feeling than an image. Like the smell of a sunflower will remind me of a sunny porch, or a song will remind me of her smile...” I paused as the image of the sheet music scattered around the floor of that human house flashed vividly through my minds eye. The tune on it held such strong familiarity. I knew that song inside and out. It was part of me.  

Something cried out in the distance. I stiffened, unsure if what I heard was a bird, an animal, or a broken human. I swallowed hard. 

The tenebrous night surrounded us as we moved carefully across a carpet of lifeless leaves toward the heart of Aika village. We were soaking wet, cold, and exposed. I feared the storm would lure out unknown predators from their lairs to break our bones and drag us away in pieces.

A small house stood as a lonely sentry in a barren yard filled with old tires, boots, and other trash. We started toward it when a light winked on within. 

Quickly, we scrambled behind a tree to hide from anyone inside. Heeding the advice of Fang, we avoided it. 

In a moment of charity, the rain stopped. 

I looked up as the storm clouds allowed a single beam of moonlight through to feebly light the town. The susurration of the ocean waves shushed softly against a distant sandy shore, and I was struck with homesickness. My house perched at the cliff edge of Seaside. I would fall asleep to that sound every night. 

Would anyone come looking for us? Kenshin and Kosei were my family –the only family I knew besides Mom and Dad. As much as they drove me nuts, I honestly couldn't see my life without those two jokers in it. I glanced to Taki and bit my lip to hold back the thoughts of the four of us never seeing our homes or our friends again. 

Cecelia had said this is where broken members of our kind were sent to disappear. But we weren't broken. We were just trapped in the worst possible place a human could tread.

No, I couldn't break. Not now. I wasn't alone. Right now, this other human was the most important person in my life. We needed to stick together to find Kenshin and Cecelia. If we didn't, we might never see them again.

_Kenshin_ , I put my resolute thought to the foreground to hold onto. _I'll find you. I swear we'll all get out of here with our breath intact. That's a promise._

I suddenly froze when a morbid thought pierced through my chest. “Taki.” 

He stopped.

“Kenshin and Cecelia...” The blood drained from my face, and I knew I looked as bleached as the lifeless moonlight, “they don't know to avoid the humans.”

\---------------------

TBC


	4. The Joker Mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kenshin and Cecelia find they aren't alone.

**CHAPTER 4: The Joker Mask**

“Cecelia, stop!” I splashed through puddles on the cracked sidewalk in a full run, keeping the long red locks of the little girl's hair in sight. She was fast for someone who's crown came up to my chest. I felt bad for leaving Mel and Taki behind, but I couldn't let terror drive the smallest of us into potential life-threatening danger—even more so than the tense situation with Fang.

I chased her across the stone bridge into the darkened heart of Aika village. Dilapidated old houses clung to the hills rolling through the seaside valley –each one a desiccated shell of a former reality, being eaten away by the salt air in an aching slowness. 

We passed through a grove of trees by a house that looked like a child haphazardly built it with toy logs. A single light flicked on as I ran by, but I didn't notice the door crack open in curiosity to see who had disturbed its resident. 

Cecelia didn't know why she was still running. Her legs refused her commands to stop, like someone else controlled the tendons and muscles of her body. She had to escape from that house, and the from the wolf who threatened to shred her to fleshy ribbons over a doll. 

I saw her cut a sharp right at a row of thick, flowerless shrubs. She wasn't tall enough or strong enough to jump over them, but I could easily handle a hurdle like that. I'd done it before. I picked up my pace, judged the distance and strength I'd need to put into my body, and at the exact moment, leaped over the shrubs and landed directly in her path. 

I caught her before she could stop and held on as tightly as I could. She screamed into my shirt, but I refused to let up. “Cecelia, you have to calm down.” Her struggling nearly took me to the ground. My foot slid back to provide more balance. She might be fast, but she wasn't very strong. “Cecelia. Cecelia!” I couldn't tell if it was her tears wetting my clothing, or the rain. My voice remained firm, but disarming. “Cecelia, it's me; Kenshin. You're all right. You're all right.”

Her struggles slowed, and I could feel her starting to bring herself back from the fight-or-flight response that overcame her. She looked up at me and blinked. It could have been my vision blurred by the rain, but I saw a dark haze clear from the emerald green of her irises. 

“Kenshin?” Tears slipped from her eyes. 

“Yeah,” I exhaled, glad she wasn't using me as a punching bag anymore. “You shouldn't have run off like that.”

“I'm sorry, I...” She gasped. “Fang! Is he still after me?!”

“No,” I assured her. “I could barely keep up with you,” I tried a little humor to ease her fear. “You're pretty fast.” 

Her lip quivered like she would burst into tears again. 

“How did you know his name?” I couldn't stay quiet about my curiosity. According to her and Taki, no one out of Aika knew the animals who lived here, because no human ever left, and we'd never set foot in the town until now. She couldn't possibly know any of the residents.

I could tell she was ashamed at her actions. She lowered her head to rest it against the doll's and mumbled, “I don't know.”

“Why did you say the doll is yours?” 

“I don't know, ok?!” she yelled back within a loud thunderclap. “Stop bugging me about it, you big jerk.” She rammed her small fist into my chest.

“Who's over there?” A high tenor voice came from the clearing we'd just run through. 

The man sounded irritated, but by the pitch of his voice, not much older than myself.  The small house we'd passed by was only separated by a few trees. A hard yellow beam from a flashlight sliced across the bushes, barely missing us. I automatically squinted into the darkness to discern the source. A flash of lightning lit up a humanoid silhouette. Taki's words came back to me in that second: ' _Aika Village is where they send the worst of our kind._ ' I cursed under my breath. This was horrible timing. 

Something inside me urged that we needed to hide immediately. I pulled her down to scoot up against the shrubs and tucked us back as far into the foliage as we could manage. 

She pulled her dirty knees up to her chest, sheltering the doll within the circle of her arms. 

The crunch of dead leaves and dirt beneath a pair of boots came steadily closer. 

“I saw movement. Show yourself.” the man demanded. “Sarah? Jon? He paused, then his voice sharpened. “Octavian? Is that you again?” 

I heard the light rush of energy that accompanies a deleafing command. He'd returned something to its material state, though I had no idea if it was harmful or benign, and thus, had extremely limited knowledge with which to defend myself and Cecelia. I held the gold leaf in my wet palm, ready to call the ax to my aid if needed. The rain cloaked us in its silver sheets.

His tone shifted in a breath to someone hurling threats like knives in self preservation. “You'd better stay away from me, you eight legged freak of nature! You hear me?! Or I'll send you home with only four. Do you get me?!” 

A small squeak escaped her. I wrapped my right arm around her shoulders to pull her close for protection, and placed my other hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. Her skin was cold, and I could feel her trembling. She tensed up, and I guessed her body was screaming at her to run away. Gauging from the reactions of terror from her and the others, 'fear' didn't look like something I wanted to experience. Its twisting dagger hindered them rather than it helped. I was glad I'd been spared that.

The footsteps grew louder. 

Should we make a run for it? Confront him and talk it out, or stay and hope he doesn't notice us? Which option would hold the less likely result of harm? I tightened my jaw. 

“I'll give you to the count of three, you fetid sack of urine,” the man scraped the object in his hand along the bark of a tree. It sounded metallic. “One...”

The sheets of rain helped to hide us, but the colors of her dress would give us away for sure. Even muddied, she stood out like a candy-colored beacon in the fog.

I could hear him drag the object across the line of shrubs. Waterlogged twigs and leaves bent to its will. Cecelia tensed and bit her lip to stay quiet. 

“Two...”

The rain stopped. I looked up at the moonlight back-lighting the clouds. I had to make a decision fast. 

Cecelia held her breath behind my palm. My skin was the only warmth she felt. The rest of her resembled a frozen corpse. She wanted to flee, but I was the only force holding her down. If she ran, if she encountered that damaged human...

The footsteps drew closer...closer... 

My right hand tightened around the durable gold leaf. I inhaled lightly, prepared to wield the ax before it formed.

“Thr—“

The tension snapped to a shrill scream in the distance. 

My heart slammed into my rib cage. That sounded like Mel.

Cecelia tensed beneath my hand. I tightened my hold around her to keep her from leaping off in response to her fear. The thunderclaps drowned out the sound, but I knew her heart was racing. I could feel her pulse, like a frightened bunny's.

“That didn't sound like Sarah,” the man drew out the syllables, trying to figure out the source as he spoke.

The footfalls moved away from us. 

A few seconds ticked slowly by before I relaxed my hold on her and risked peaking over the hedges. We were alone. “He's gone,” I whispered. 

Cecelia slumped. “That was scary,” she whimpered. 

I extended my hand. “Can you walk?”

She slapped it away. “I'm not a kid,” she insisted, and stood. Her legs wobbled, still holding her fear, but she held strong. Her dress was muddy, and her shoes and stalkings were now a dull shade of umber. 

I didn't care if she could or not, to be honest. Offering my hand was simply an expected social gesture to show concern about someone else. Of course, I didn't want to see her struggle --I'm not heartless--the outcome simply didn't matter to me. Or, couldn't matter to me. 

“That scream...” Cecelia looked to the distance. “Who was that?”

“I think it was Mel. I've heard her scream when she found a roach once, but never like that. That was like the roach was fighting back.” A need to run to save her from whatever horror she'd encountered pulsed through me, but I held back. I couldn't take off and leave Cecelia behind. Something told me I needed to remain at this girl's side regardless of what I felt, and not just because of our grim location. 

I began walking away from the shrubs toward the direction of the scream with her next to me. 

Cecelia tucked her hand into mine while holding the doll close. 

I glanced down to her, watching her bite her lip to keep from admitting that she didn't want to be alone. I squeezed her hand in reassurance.

Soggy clothes littered the ground among remnants of garbage and dead bamboo shoots. Cecelia cringed as she stepped across an old tire, but all I could think was how the person who planted these had no concept of spacial reasoning when it came to plants. 

A rusted tin can clanked by us with enough force that it couldn't have been tossed by the wind. I turned to find where it came from. 

"Hey, little girl. Wanna play?" The man from before stepped out from behind a sun-bleached red shed. His hands were empty, and he wore a black and silver joker mask obscuring his face except for his eyes. They were a vibrant blue that stood out even in the storm. 

This was the one we'd narrowly managed to avoid. 

“I thought I'd heard someone around my house, but I didn't expect it to be strangers.” He moved closer, removing a leaf from his pocket. 

I had the gold leaf out in seconds. “Whatever that is, keep it leafed.”

“Relax,” he said with lazy candor. “It's just a water bottle.” He deleafed it anyway. Just as he'd said, it was a tin canister. He unscrewed the top and tilted the mask back to take a sip. The top remained in his right hand as he stepped closer. “You're new. Been a long time since we've seen new blood here.” 

My gold leaf became an ax in a second. 

His eyes widened at the sight of the tool. “I'm surprised 'ol Fang let you keep that, especially on this side of the river.” Then he chuckled. It was a cold sound holding wickedness and unknown plans. “I may just borrow that.”

I blinked. “You're kidding, right?”

“Oh, I never kid. Not about something this important.” He stepped forward, pushing us toward a cluster of dead bamboo shoots. “Hand it over, and I won't consider telling Octavian you're here...yet. He'll figure it out, eventually. In fact,” his gaze drifted toward the far end of town where the cliff met the ocean, and where the scream originated, “He probably already did. I'm guessing you two aren't alone.”

My palms worried against the wooden handle as I slid one foot back. “Who are you?”

He kept pressing us into the rotting bamboo. “Don't you know? I'm the most important person in the world. I'm the Master. ”

“Ok.” Great, we met the delusional human. 

He paused, staring at Cecelia, or rather what she carried. “That doll,” his voice lowered. “Where did you find it?” 

Her grip tightened, forcing her to let go of my hand. “It's mine.”

“Cecelia,” I began.

“That belonged to her.” The man nearly whispered the words. His breathing increased. “Give it to me!” He dropped the water bottle and lunged for Cecelia. 

I put myself between them and swung the ax as a warning. He stopped, as I'd predicted, but I didn't expect him to retaliate with a mud ball to my face. I tried to block, but half of it splattered across my eyes.  

I stumbled away to gain distance. That's when I heard another scream, this one close by. “Cecelia!”

The second it took me to wipe my sleeve across my eyes was long enough for him to grab the ax handle. We both fought for control. I risked a quick glance around. 

He'd deliberately herded us into a minefield of pitfalls. And Cecelia had fallen into one.

He cried out in rage behind his smiling facade, but I wouldn't budge. He was driven by anger. Me... I was driven by a desire to protect my friend. I was also slightly taller than him, and by the way I'd managed to turn him toward the dead bamboo shoots hiding the pitfall markers, stronger, too. 

I pushed back and kicked out at his stomach. 

He hit the moist ground on his back with a sickening 'splut,' coughing and cradling his middle.    
“Cecelia, climb out and run,” I commanded. I lowered my ax. 

That was a mistake. 

A sharp jolt hammered into my right knee. I cried out in shock as hot pain slash across my calf a breath later. The pain took me to the ground. 

He'd managed to reach his water bottle to use as a weapon against my kneecap. But in his right hand, he held the lid. The glint of metal revealed a scalpel secured to the inside of it –easily concealable.

I clutched at the back of my calf as needles of pain shot through my body. The fabric of my trousers quickly darkened from blood loss. Rain began to fall once more, which didn't help. 

He releafed the water bottle, put it in his pocket, and wrenched the ax from my hand. His next move had me staring down the handle of the tool with the sharpened edge an inch from my throat. 

“You don't think I managed to survive here for eight years without learning how to protect myself, did you?” 

He tilted his head to stare at me. I returned the unblinking gaze. His eyes held something I hadn't seen before within Mayor Kosei or Mel: a dark history filled with struggle, despair, frustration, and anger. 

“Kenshin!” Cecelia climbed out of the pitfall hole. 

“Cecelia, stay back. Go find Mel and Taki,” I said, my voice steady as I kept my gaze locked on stranger's. I'd have my chance to turn this around. I just had to wait, and she needed to be removed as a pawn he could use. 

“Kenshin, huh?” He snorted. “That's a stupid name. Were your parents drunk when they gave it to you, or something?”

I simply stared, a little irate at the insult to my family. 

His eyes narrowed as he studied me with the discerning eye of a jeweler examining a gem for flaws that would warrant destroying it. “You have an ax to your throat and you're not shaking or begging for your life.” He leaned forward slightly, then started to giggle in short bursts of low chuckles that steadily thread together in one long, disjointed agglomeration of mirth. 

I didn't need to see his expression to know it radiated with pure delight. But delight for what?

“Oh, ho, ho, yes! This is perfect! I can't believe they let a blank slate through the door!” 

Before I could ask, he'd rushed to Cecelia's side to replace me with her as his captive.   
She squeaked as he leveled the ax at her neck and grabbed her hair. “Ow!”

I got to my feet, putting most of my weight on my left leg. “Let her go.” 

“Nope,” He said in quick defiance. “How about you follow us, gimpy. If you can.” He started edging himself and her through the maze of pitfalls with precision. He knew every inch of his own design. “We'll see you at Re-Tail. Feel free to let yourself in.”

“Kenshin,” she grimaced at the cold metal against her skin, “help.”

Once clear of the field, he rammed the butt of the ax into her head. 

Cecelia let out a cry of pain, then fell limp in his arms. He quickly caught the doll before she could drop it.

He releafed the ax, pocketed it, and hurried off into the night carrying the small mayor. 

“Cecelia,” I limped forward. “Cecelia!” The dirt beneath me gave way and I tumbled into a pitfall. With some effort, I was able to haul myself out, but my right leg throbbed in agony. Blood had already seeped down into my sock. The cut on my calf was deep. I could barely move my foot. Despite that pain, I worked my way through the labyrinth of pitfalls, doing my best to avoid the tell-tail markings. Most of the field was covered in dead bamboo and grass. The hidden ones waited for me like the open mouths of monsters. I climbed out of them. Another wrong step sent me into another. I sat at the bottom and gently touched my injuries. It became harder to move as time passed. 

I forced myself through it, finally reaching the end of the maze. By then, the joker-masked man would be well settled in to waiting for me. I couldn't let him win. I couldn't let him hurt her. 

Yet I paused at a line of brush. The cold wind swept through my wet clothes as it did the dead trees and I shivered. My right leg would put me at a disadvantage to win against him in another fight. As much as I wanted to hobble off and find Re-Tail, it wouldn't do Cecelia any good. It would be an illogical move. 

Determined, I deleafed my silver bug net to use its handle as a walking stick and headed toward the cliff where I'd heard the scream. 

I silently begged to not run into anyone else until I'd found Mel and Taki. I wasn't defenseless, but I was definitely more vulnerable that I was comfortable with. The high level of rage I should have for this other human didn't surpass the moderate amount that existed. I wouldn't let it. 

Or maybe...I couldn't.

\-------  
TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking with me so far. :)  
> Comments are love. :)


	5. Our Lost Word

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mel and Taki run into trouble at the police station when a broken human reveals a dangerous lost word among the truth of her crimes, and the feared peace-keeper of Aika Village emerges from the shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter contains descriptions of a scene that might disturb some viewers. Please proceed knowing your imagination may take it to a much darker place.

**CHAPTER 5: Our Lost Word**

If someone gave me a rate sheet for this evening, I would move the line to negative 4. Why? Because the night wasn't over, and I had a bad feeling that line needed space to move further into the depths of hell. 

Just like us. 

I shivered from the cold.  Not only had the rain stopped, but the clouds parted just enough to let moonlight pinpoint the town, and suck up any warmth trapped by the convection layer.  Thank you, nature, for making our nightmare here a little worse. 

I sneezed.  

“Bless you,” Taki said. 

“Thank--” but he grabbed my hand and hauled me behind a tree before I could finish.

“Hold up,” he shushed any remarks I was ready to spew.  “I saw someone move in that house up ahead.  It didn't look like an animal.” 

A dim yellow light bled out through the dirty windows.  As we watched, a human came into view.  It stopped, slowly turned to wipe condensation from the window, and peered out. 

It was a girl a few years older than I. Long hair dangled from her head like a cluster of wet strings. She slapped her palm repeatedly against the glass. 

Each slow impact sent a jolt through my heart.  Her head tilted slightly, like she moved in a trance.  Then she stopped, and her mouth cracked in a smile. I glanced up to Taki, then back to the window, only the person was gone, and the window was open. Torn curtains fluttered in the breeze.  

I felt Taki's hand stiffen on my shoulder.  He'd noticed, too. “Let's go. Let's go, now.”

We hurried toward the next light filtering through the trees.  That woman could be anywhere out here, stalking us like her prey.  My heart raced.  What had she done that earned her a space among the most dangerous Humans in the world?  

Taki recognized the source of the lights in seconds as it took on a familiar cylindrical shape.  “The police station,” he grinned in relief.  “We'll be safe there.”   
   
Movement rustling in the distance shredded that security.  The slim, hunched figure of the woman shot from the darkness directly for us.  

“Go! Run!” I picked up speed.

The woman laughed a she chased us, giggling with scant remnants of sanity. 

Taki and I jumped a line of hedges between us and our salvation.  

I knew how wide these could grow, since I was my town's landscape architect.  This wouldn't be the first time I'd hurdled one.  Ruby and I used to hold contests when she lived there.  She used to complain that my long legs gave me an advantage. I'd whip that back at her commenting on her large feet giving her an extra boost.  

Unlike my town's, however, these were left to grow in savage, thick gnarls. One of the branches caught my pant leg, tearing the fabric and taking me to the ground.  I cried out at the impact, thankful that I'd hit a mud puddle.  Fear kept me from feeling the pain too sharply.

Taki quickly helped me to my feet.  Taking that shortcut gave us a few extra moments of desperately needed time. I could hear her laughing behind us, the sound crawling like ants across my skin. 

He ran up the steps to the police station and pulled on the door.  It was locked. Why did this have to be the only place requiring...  “The key.”  He fished it out of his pocket and wiggled it in the keyhole, but nothing happened.  “Dammit, it's not the right one.” 

“You're kidding.  Then why did he give it to you!?”  I cried out in frustration.  

“Like I know,” He snapped back.  He put the key back in his pocket.  “The light's on, so someone's in there.”  He banged on the door.  “Hey!  Open up!  Help!” 

“There has to be a way in through a window, or the back door.”  I ran around back.

“It's a police station.  It doesn't have a back door.”  And yet, we tried anyway, to no avail.  Normally, Taki loved being right, just not at this instance. 

The woman's low chuckle snaked around us as she stepped into view, cutting off our path back to the rest of Aika.  “Gotchya.  You lost little kittens looking for shelter? I can help you.  I can take you somewhere safe.”  Her cheshire grinned remained.  Though her words were those of someone promising what we desired, the delivery, her presence, and her body language spelled the opposite.  She stared unblinking at us with large, dark, hollow eyes. 

A sense pinged through my mind so strongly, it contained the words 'get away.'  I'd had strong hunches before, but never to the point where I heard a voice in my head. I ran with it before I could question it. I picked up a glob of mud and threw it at her face. 

“G'yah!” She wiped at her eyes.  “You stupid little brat!”

We used that stolen second to escape around the other side of the station back toward the ocean.  

We entered an open space with short rows of standing stones that came up to my waist, each set equally apart, and each identical in make, but different in how time had treated them.  We didn't have anything like this in Seaside.  It's meaning escaped me, but not Taki. 

He stopped in the center of the rows, taking in the scene.  “When you said 'get away' why did you go this way?”

“Wait, you heard it, too?”  

“That wasn't you?” 

“No.” I shook my head, then glanced around.  

The woman prowled the edge, not setting a foot into the neat rows of mounded grass.  She had us cornered between the cliff, the police station, and a long drop to the frothing ocean waves below.  She licked her lips, eager and waiting.  “Poor sheltered kittens.  Never set foot among the breathless before?”

“The breathless.  You mean...”  I finally took a good look at the stones.  The words carved into them were in the same language carved into the sign over the train station.  Now I understood.  I knew what that phrase meant, and it made my blood run cold.  I glanced to Taki. “You mean this is a...”

His fists clenched tightly at his sides, and he more breathed the word than spoke it. “A cemetery.”

“Ah,” the woman crooned.  “So, one kitten knows where he stands.  There's another word the animals never use around us to describe someone who's breath has been taken away.  A lost human word. They don't want us to remember. Do you know it, boy kitten?” 

He grit his teeth.  “Get away from us.  Now.”

“Tell her. Jog her memory.” she giggled, crouching down to run her hand along the wet grass of one of the mounds, petting it lovingly.  “I want to see her face when the innocence leaves her eyes.”

“Shut up,” He snarled.  

“Do it.  Tell her!”

“Shut up!”

She gripped the grass and ripped it from the ground. Leaves slipped through her fingers.  “Tell her the lost human word!  Tell her about Death!”

“Death...” the moment the word left my lips, an image of a place like this, but much larger, rammed into the front of my mind.  The emotion of sadness flooded through it, turning any colors into a monochromatic canvas.  I'd been there for someone I knew, someone who's breath was taken from them, who would never see sunlight again, someone who had... “Died.  Th-they died.” I began to tremble, but this time not from the cold.  

I felt Taki's hand rest against my cheek and turn my head so his face and dark blue eyes replaced the memory of the cemetery on the hill.  

“Mel, look at me.  Whatever you remember, we can talk about it when we get out of here.  I promise I am there for you, just like Olivia was for me when I first heard that word while out of town. Ok?  Stay with me.”

I nodded slowly.  He'd recalled something like this as well, which had me curious about Kenshin and Kosei. Suddenly I wondered if other human words existed that held this kind of power. 

The woman tittered in glee.  “Ah, I love it!  Emerson was right! That word always brings back one memory to someone who's never heard it!  The look on your face says it all.  What is it?  How horrible is your memory?!”

“You've done enough!” Taki deleafed his slingshot from his pocket, took aim at the woman and fired off a round of bearings.  They missed, but it was a warning shot. 

She eyed the golden slingshot like it was made of meat, and she was starving.  “Oh, the kittens are hiding toys. Give it to me.”  She lunged forward, her demands quickly morphing into primal cries.  “Give it to me!  Give it! Give it! Give it!”  

I stumbled back onto one of the mounds.  The ground crumbled away beneath me.  I grabbed onto his jacket instinctively, but ended up pulling him into the pitfall with me.  I landed hard on a crumple of blanket over what felt like sticks. My hand brushed against something soft.  I looked past my blue sneakers, and wished I hadn't.  

The soft thing were tattered scraps of a shirt and jeans barely clinging to dried up bones. 

I screamed.  

So did he. Taki scrambled away from the skeleton, but the two of us in the cramped space left little room to maneuver.  

This was a human skeleton; one of us.

Water droplets began to pelt the dirt, darkening the bones for the first time in years.

She held up the slingshot he'd dropped.  “Thanks for the present, boy kitten.” She stood over us, gloating behind stands of long, dark, wet hair.  “Well? What do you think of my prank? Putting a black pitfall in a grave.  Genius, right? Makes it harder to climb out since it's deeper.” She crouched down.  “Want to know how I ended up in Aika Village? Pitfall pranks were my thing, but I was never satisfied.   They could always be better. So I started putting things in them –things like rocks, bugs, rotten turnips, trash, and my final masterpiece... nails.” She pushed hair away from her eyes.  “I had to steal a lot from the gardening store in order to get enough to layer the bottom.  Haha. That villager moved out as soon as he left the hospital. I am the mayor. When I want someone gone, they leave.”

Words failed to find a voice.  I could only stare, unblinking, at this woman—no, creature—luxuriating in her crime.

“Your own villagers...You...” Taki couldn't finish his sentence.  He couldn't finish the thought. The idea that anyone could do something that evil belonged in fiction, nightmares, and horror stories... of Aika Village.   

She placed two pebbles into the sling and pulled it back.  “Say 'Good Night, Mayor Sarah.'” Her grin widened as she pulled the sling back enough to make the rubber bands quiver.

I'd expected that pebble to hit me in the eye or the forehead.  Instead, something choked the laugh from her throat.  

Taki and I watched as a thick red tentacle wrapped around her waist and yanked her off her feet out of sight.  We could hear her screaming in rage.

“Put me down!  No, let me go! I'll get you, Octavian! You'll regret this!”  Sarah's curses ended in a scream that faded quickly into the night. 

The rain's percussion against the bones, and a fresh distant roll of thunder permeated the air. It began to smell like decay and earth once more. 

Quickly, we scrambled out of the hole.  Taki hoisted me up, and I pulled him out.  I sat on my knees, and looked to him, then to the ground.  We were both soaked, bruised, scratched up, and afraid.  “Those poor animals...  How could she?”  I whispered.  That word she released remained with me, glued to my mind with frightening permanence.   _Death_.  I curled my knees into the circle of my arms.  Why did a single word frighten me so much? 

Something warm settled around my shoulders.  I looked up to find Taki had draped his jacket around me. That left him in a black 8 ball t-shirt.  He said nothing, but his eyes were hard.  I knew he was deeply upset by what Sarah had done.  He was a mayor, and he had to deal with another mayor responsible for harming their villagers and possibly causing one of them to end their breath.

I stood and tucked my arms into the sleeves. The trace of body heat left in the fabric felt like I'd wrapped myself within another presence desperately needing me, and I, it. 

“A mayor does what's best for their town and their villagers,” he said.  “Cat, bunny, squirrel, human, it doesn't matter what we are. We're all living there together. Your villagers... they trust you; some without question, others questioning you to make you a better person.” He clenched his fist. “She used and betrayed that trust.”  His teeth clenched against an imagined incident of the psychotic mayor luring an unsuspecting, innocent small villager into a pit of pain. 

The rain made it hard to tell if a tear slid down his face, or the downpour accumulated at his eyes.  

“She doesn't deserve to be called anything but a monster.” 

I didn't know what to say to bring any kind of comfort to him.  The wind brushed through my hair and I looked at my dirty shoes.  Even if I couldn't empathize with him on the same career level, I could relate with how I felt about the others in my own town.  

He finally turned toward me and said, “Let's find Kenshin and Cecelia and go home.”

I nodded.  “Are you—“

“I'm fine.”

I knew he wasn't fine.  No one would be in that situation.  Still, I wouldn't say anything.  I would show my concern for him by being someone he could count on. 

He accepted it, metaphor and all.

“Can we get out of the rain, please? My shoes are mini puddles.”

That bad joke brought the slightest of softness back to his eyes. 

We hurried back for the police station, hoping whoever resided within would head our plea for help, but the door was wide open, and the lights were out.  A beehive tumbled out.  It bobbed and rolled in a drunken manner to settle at my feet.  I picked it up carefully.  Thank goodness it was empty.  Cautious, we stepped up into the darkened station.  

Lightning flashed to a low rumble overhead, illuminating rows of beehives in a blue strobe.  Their empty shells filled the station.   I'd never seen so many in one place.  I turned to ask him what he thought, and froze.  My lips trembled.  The beehive slipped from my hands. 

“Mel?”

A large, bulbous shadow rose up lethargically behind him, blacking out the moonlight.  
   
My breath quickened.  “Taki!”  I grabbed his hand and yanked him inside. 

The shadow read my movements.  At the moment my hand clasped around his, a dark red tentacle like the one from before coiled around his waist and snatched him outside.  

Taki screamed, grasping at the appendage to pull himself free.  It's suckers were too strong. It lifted him off the ground.

I ran outside, so numb from fear, that I couldn't think clearly.  I picked up a beehive and threw it at the animal, hitting it in the back. 

It turned and glared at me with beady eyes above a mouth as wide as my face. Its main body wasn't much taller than Kenshin's, but it quickly proved its powerful strength.

“You shouldn't have done that, Human.”  Its voice echoed deep, and clear. Its mouth moved, mimicking the sounds. 

I couldn't see a way for it to actually form words, and yet I heard it above my friend's cries to be released. 

Acting out of pure survival, I deleafed the shovel from my pocket and charged.  “Let him go!”

The octopus' lashed out one of its seven remaining tentacles, knocking me back.  It wrenched the tool from my hands, and growled.  “You're not permitted to have this.  What else are you carrying?”  It whipped its arm around both of mine, pinning them to my body, and lifted me off my feet.

I kicked and thrashed, crying out in terror. 

Without warning, it turned Taki upside-down, secured its suckers around his ankles, and shook him.  

Three green leaves drifted to the ground.

It did the same to me, but my pockets were empty save for the shovel –which now lay useless in the weeds.  The key tumbled out of the jacket pocket to the ground. 

The octopus righted both of us.   

I felt the key in my palm and clasped my fist around it.  How did it get there?  I was confused, but too fear-stricken to question.  I stared into its eyes as it 'spoke.' 

“I don't recognize you.”  It peered at me, then at Taki, who still tried to pry the suction cups away from his body.  “You dirty humans keeping me up when I should be relaxing at home.  It's rude to interrupt someone's plans.”

“You're Octavian?”  Taki grunted when the tentacle around him squeezed. 

“Sarah mentioned you,” I piped up in hopes of distracting him.  “She's afraid of you.”

“She should be. It's my job to make sure you don't take each others breath. Sometimes I fail.”

“You don't sound too upset by that,” I risked.  

It raised me higher into the air, and seemed to gain joy from my squeak of surprise.  “Personally, I'd throw you off the cliff myself for what you've done.”

“Is..is that what you did to Sarah?” Taki asked.

“Sarah's back in her house where she belongs,” It rolled its eyes.  “She and Emerson keep me busy.  Jon, I don't have to worry about.  Now I have to babysit you two,” it tightened its hold on both of us, “You're adding to the problem.”

“We'd rather be anywhere than here, and certainly not causing you problems,” Taki tried diplomacy.  “I'm Mayor Taki of Leafside.  Why don't we start over?  We kind of got off on the wrong,” he glanced at the thick, muscled appendage lifting him off the ground, “foot...so to speak.  L-let's talk about this.  Maybe we can come to a mutual—“

“Save it,” the octopus turned away from the police station.  It walked smoothly on the rest of its arms despite the sucker sounds against the sidewalk for traction. It lifted itself and us over the row of low hedges like stepping over river stones.  “Fang has something against me today, sending over two more damaged mistakes without telling me.”

“We're not supposed to be here,” I blurted out.  

“Then why are you in Aika Village, and why were you at Sayaka's grave?”

“Who's Sayaka?” Taki glanced back.  “Are all those graves of humans?”

“Not all of them,” the octopus grumbled. 

“Were they your friends?”  He continued sadly. 

The octopus didn't speak for a moment, then finally said in a low, irritated tone.  “Why would you care.  Shut up.  Your voice is annoying.” 

“I—“  Taki's words cut off when another tentacle wrapped around his mouth.  He struggled, unable to break the hold of the suction cup sealing his lips. 

“Where are you taking us?” My voice quivered.  I soon found my own words silenced in the same way.  Its flesh was cold, moist, and reminded me of day old shell fish.  I hated the slimy feel of it on my skin.

Octavian carried us down to the cliff edge and across to a small house caged in by a weather-worn picket fence.  He let go of my mouth to open the door and tossed us inside.

I hit the old threadbare rug hard, but managed to keep the key tight in my fist.  

“Stay there.  I'll figure out what to do with you in the morning.  If I catch you outside, I will throw you into the ocean.”  Octavian let his threat simmer, and slammed the door. 

Taki slowly got to his feet, rubbing at the red marks on his face, and moved to the door.  Of course, it was locked.  However, when he flicked the light switch next to it, the overhead light turned on.  It illuminated the living room, consisting of a dusty kitchenette, a couch, an armchair, a bed, a desk, a mushroom table with a lamp, and paper.  The door to the small back room was closed.

“Well,” I moved to a space heater and turned it on.  “We have power.  And it's dry.  And...”

“Were never getting out of here,” Taki interrupted.  His fist rested against the door.  “We're trapped in Aika Village with broken humans capable of stealing breath, giant spiders, and angry animals, and it's all my fault.  I should have never taken us beyond the border.”

I blinked.  This was an opposite reaction to what I'd seen from him before.  “We wouldn't have made it with all those tarantulas at the train.  Crossing the border was the only choice we had.” 

“There is always another, and I didn't see it.  I never do until it's too late.  Dammit.”  His fist beat the surface slowly, then with more force.  “Dammit.  Dammit.  Dammit!  Dammit! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!”

Each word struck me like my mind was the door, helpless against his lashing.  “Taki...”  
   
He continued to take out his frustration on the impenetrable door, tears of failure burning his eyes.  

I could feel an overwhelming sense of sadness.. no... something worse, something deeper I'd never felt.  It creeped up on me.  But it wasn't mine.  I didn't have an emotion of that negative severity in my joke book. 

“Stop,” I whispered.  I shoved the key into my pocket and balled my hands into fists as I clenched my teeth.  “STOP IT!” 

Taki turned around at my scream. 

“You're mad!  You're frightened!  You feel like we're screwed, and so do I, but I don't want to give up!” Tears streamed down my cheeks.  “I want to go home and see Freya, Poppy, Marshal, Sylivia, Amelia, Merry, and Chief again!  I want to get coffee at the Roost and tell Isabelle the latest bad joke Ruby mailed to me from her new town! I want to bring you to my town so you can see where I live, and I want to visit Leafside to see where you live, and thank Olivia for being there for you, and to get coffee at the cafe in your town!  You stupid idiot!  Don't take that away from me!  We'll find Kenshin and Cecelia and we'll all visit your town, and we'll all go to Sugarpine to see Cecelia's hybrid flowers!  I want to go home!  You promised me we would! So just stop it!”

My body trembled.  I wasn't used to feeling that emotion, and didn't know what to do with it.  I wanted to tear it out of my chest, rip it apart, and burn it. 

He stared at my outburst.  “Mel, I... I needed to.”

“I know,” I sniffled.  “You needed to get it out.  I get it.  I'm sorry.  I'm just... really, really scared that you're right.”  I sat on the couch.  

I felt motion next to me when he'd settled onto the other cushion.  Neither of us wanted to be alone as our adrenaline levels dropped, and reality closed in.  I wiped my sleeve across my runny nose, and grimaced.  “Sorry.”

“That's all right.  It's washable.”  

I slipped the key from my pocket back to his hand.  “Fang gave it to you.  You should hold onto it.”  

It's small size weighed heavy with mystery in his palm.  “This had better be worth keeping.  It's like a side quest where I have no idea if it'll actually be beneficial to us or not.” 

“Are there other lost human words out there like ...like...?”  I didn't want to say it.  Thinking it revived the imagery.  

“I only know one more, but, probably.”  

“Considering what happened when I heard this one, they should stay lost.” 

He took a deep breath.  “We can at least rest and go back out there to find Kenshin and Cecelia.  I don't care what that octopus said.  We'll get home. Somehow.”

I nodded and curled up into the jacket. I had a bad feeling we wouldn't be allowed respite for long, especially if we disobeyed Octavian's order.

\-------------- 

TBC 

\--------------


	6. Behind the Fog

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mel and Taki remain trapped in the house-turned-cage. Their moment of respite breaks into a creepy crawly terror that awakens a memory hidden away within Taki's mind.

**CHAPTER 6: Behind the Fog**

“Cecelia,” Mel's voice quivered in sadness. “She must be so scared out there right now.”

“At least she's with Kenshin,” I consoled. “He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would abandon her. Plus, nothing here will scare him. They're probably in better shape than we are.” 

“I hope you're right.”

Something heavy crashed behind the locked back-room door.

We both jumped, and I thought my heart would break through my ribcage. After all, we'd sat in silence with the pattering of rain and the percussion of thunder as our only soundtrack long enough for our hearing to enhance.

“S-something probably fell over,” Mel calmed her breathing.  

“Yeah,” I weakly agreed. We were alone in our part of the house, but had no idea what lurked beyond that door.  

Aside from being trapped, we had a chance to recover. 

The poor little space heater's machinations clanged as it struggled to warm up the living room. 

She'd draped my jacket over the chair near the heater a few minutes ago, along with our shoes and socks to dry. If we were going to be stuck in this house for any length of time, we might as well use the items around us to our advantage. 

I'd sat with her for what felt like an hour, though had no way to know since someone removed the hands from the plain, minimalist clock on the wall, and neither of us had a watch. She stayed close to me, but given our current hope-deflating reality, I'd do the same. In fact, I did. Whether I liked it or not, or wanted to admit it, her presence gradually became like a security blanket. If Mel was there, I wasn't alone, and the crazy-infused atmosphere of Aika Village couldn't reach me. 

It was as comforting as receiving letters from Mom. My best friend, Cole, knew how I felt about those, but no one else did. Cole was safe. He had the short term memory of a pill bug, and was, for lack of a better term...an idiot. I could get everything off my chest with him and know it would disappear into the ether of that rabbit's mind in five minutes. Sadly, that also applied to anything else you asked him to do.

I made a mental note to write my mom when I got home instead of just call her. This time, I'll hold my ground when asking Pete for a solid reason why I can't use the instant mail delivery service to send her anything like she can to me. I won't give up after his usual shrugged 'that's just the way it is' response. Pete was a master of avoidance. I've been mayor for 4 years. I had a right to know. 

The tumultuous brume outside faded away. 

A soft grumble replaced it. I glanced to Mel, who blushed in embarrassment and hunched over with her arms tight around her middle. 

“Sorry. Those crackers you gave me on the train were all I'd eaten since lunch. We were going to get dinner in Hana Valley.” A light chuckle followed. “Guess that's not gonna happen.”

I had to agree. Since we'd calmed a little from the rush of terror at the graveyard, my stomach pained a little from emptiness, too. We'd been running on 100% survival up to this point.

I stood. “I'll check the kitchen for something,” 

“I'll try to find a way out.” 

I began searching through the four skinny cupboards. Nothing edible stood out beyond a box of sugar, some salt, a can of baked beans –which I had to leave behind due to the fact that nothing but a pile of napkins inhabited the drawers, leaving me no way to open the can—and a bag of what I assumed were cookies. 

The bright red printing on the package was in the same language as the engravings on the gravestones and the sign over the train station. It was a collection of lines and curves meant to invoke a sense that the contents of this bag would bring its bearer delicious happiness, but its meaning went over my head. 

The bag's expiration date still rested within a reasonable time period. Summoning my courage, I nibbled on one. Its stale flavor assaulted my taste buds, but other than being dry and resembling dirt, they were edible. I ate one and tossed her the bag. 

The squat refrigerator’s light 'plinked' on when I opened the door. I frowned at what greeted me: two cans of flat soda, what looked like rotten fruit shoved into the corner, and a wad of butcher paper around what I hoped was fresh meat. I unwrapped it and sighed in relief at its contents. It wasn't meat, but it was good enough.

“Hey,” I held it out and grabbed some napkins. “We have bread.” I handed her a chunk, which she ate, though in a grimace. I guess she didn't like it, but neither of us were going to complain since we didn't know when we'd get to eat next. 

After our meager meal, we set out looking for a way out of our furnished cage. 

Mel pulled back a polka-dot curtain on one of the three windows in the living room. “It stopped raining. I can see the moon again. Maybe this time it'll stay this way.” Just like the front door, all of them locked from the outside. However, unlike the front door, the windows sported metal bars. No amount of pulling could pry them loose. This house—another Human abode—had once been used to contain someone not even Octavian wanted roaming the village pathways. We weren't getting out of here the obvious or easy way.

I moved to the small paulownia dresser against the wall. Someone had replaced the metal knobs with crude grooves cut into the wood of the two drawers. I opened the top drawer...and instantly slammed it shut. “I'll just forget anything was seen,” I mumbled, and opened the bottom drawer.

“What is it?” Mel turned at the sound. 

“You don't want to know.”

“After what we've already seen? We've been in a grave, Taki. With bones. Real bones.” She insisted. “It's gonna take a lot to top that.”

“Have you ever seen that show that tells you how they make stuff?”

“The one with Jack, the human, and Kit, the squirrel? Yeah. They mostly do wood-working projects. Jack's kinda cute.”

“Did you see the episode where they cut up the ancient wooden doll to explain the hinges and joints?”

Her face paled slightly. “A-are there... b-bloody...body p-p—“

“Not actual body parts, but doll parts. Lots of them.” Dozens of severed plastic, wooden, and ceramic limbs and heads bearing blank stares with their eyes gouged out crammed together in a twisted, thick pile. I left that particular detail in the drawer.

She shivered. “Normally, that wouldn't bug me, but here...” 

Someone had to have ripped apart those old toys. The person who'd lived—or rather was imprisoned—here may have tried to take this one step further with living beings and that's what landed them in Aika Village. 

I pulled out some clothes –a couple of shirts and two pairs of jeans—, and tossed her a set. “Heads up. Clean clothes.” Without thinking, I went to pull off my wet 8 ball t-shirt to change into the gray henely when I heard a light 'ahem.' 

Mel stared at me. “Um...can you turn around or something?”

“G'yuh!” This time, it was my turn to flush red from embarrassed. How could I forget and start changing in front of a girl?! “Oh, right. Sorry. Sorry.” I escaped with my dry clothes, black sneakers, and socks, into the small bathroom and closed the door. I quickly changed, but lingered to give her more time. It never felt so good to slip into clean laundry, even if it was plain and infused with a wood smell from the dresser. The sleeves had a thick orange stripe ringing the elbows. 

The slim, high window at the back of the room over the bathtub held three bars spaced just close enough to inhibit anyone—even a child—from squeezing between them. So much for that idea. The rest of the bathroom was just as sparse as our new clothes. It didn't have a mirror –probably so the previous prisoner couldn't smash it and use the shards for anything violent. 

The sink knob squeaked when I turned it, and a steady steam of water flowed from the rusty faucet. I waited until the liquid turned clear—though it retained a faint green tint—and gulped deep handfuls. It helped wash down the hard bread and stale cookies.  

I splashed some onto my face, enjoying its cool refreshment, and wiped away the mud caked into my hair.  

That is, until I heard something scratching from inside the toilet bowl. 

The faucet squeaked again as I turned it off and glanced sidelong at the toilet. The sound occurred again, short, quick, and eerie. Dread welled up hot in my chest. That was not a place where sounds should originate on their own.

The white lid remained closed, though the scratching continued at the underside.

Suddenly, it stopped. 

I waited in the silence, but the creepy sounds didn't return. However, another annoying physical urge replaced it. I bit my lip. I had to go, but would it be worth it? Inside could be any manner of repulsive, vomitous thing. Gingerly, I reached out, gripped the edge of the lid with the tips of my thumb and forefinger, and lifted it. 

Roaches poured over the stained seat. They scurried in a waive of shiny brown bodies onto the floor.  

I screamed. My phobia instantly shredded the inside of my head. 

A dozen got through before I slammed the lid down, trapping the rest inside and crushing some that didn't make it to the edge. Their legs flailed under the plastic. I leaped back so far, I bumped into the door. They skittered all over the filthy, blue hexagon-tiled floor in random directions. Fear and disgust shivered across my skin like it was the bugs themselves. 

Normally, I'm a pretty good bug catcher, and I've caught everything known to inhabit my town in various seasons, but roaches were an extremely rare sight. I. Loathed. Them. 

I cried out with each stomp of my shoes. Their bodies popped and exploded beneath my feet. The motions I made making sure they didn't touch me resembled someone jumping across hot coals. 

They scurried around me and across the toes of my sneakers. I swiped one from my pant leg and screamed. My vision blurred and my mind cried out for escape. 

As soon as I had the chance, I yanked open the door, barreled into the living room, and slammed it behind me. I panted hard. 

Mel stared at me, wide eyed, as I braced my body against the door –like the remaining evil trapped in the toilet could pile up onto each other to form a giant hand and figure out how to open doors. 

“Are you ok?”

“If you have to pee, d-don't do it in there.”

Her nose wrinkled up. “Did someone not flush for years?” 

“Worse,” I swallowed. “Roaches. I crushed a ton of 'em.” 

Her face turned up in disgust. “Ugh. Gross. I hate those. Your town doesn't get them?”

“No. Leafside's been at 'perfect town' status for three years.” I stepped away from the cursed door. “I hate them. I absolutely, one-hundred-percent, hate them.”

“They're behind the door, so,” Mel pulled at the long sleeve of her newly acquired dark green shirt, “let's not open it again. Ever.”

We both stared at the door, expecting one or two to worm their way under it. 

I imagined hordes of them rushing in to cover the floors, walls, and ceiling. The image quickly gained power to the point where I saw multiple pairs of thread-like black antenna twitching beneath the door. I heard their bodies knocking against one another as they fought to squeeze themselves in. 

“They're gonna get through,” I stammered. My heart raced as I scooted my foot back. “There's hundreds of them. I can hear them.”

Mel looked curiously from me to the door. “I don't hear anything.”

“They're getting through. They're getting through!” My imagination gave it life. I blinked, and it overpowered me. I stumbled back against the far wall, trying to press myself into the wood. I squeezed my eyes against it. The darkness behind my own eyelids fed the demons further until I could feel them tickling up my pant legs, onto my skin, under my shirt. 

The scream that left my throat nearly deafened me. I pulled at my clothes, and clawed at my skin. “No!” I screamed. “They're all over me! Get 'em off! Get 'em off me!”

“Taki!” 

I barely heard her through the thunder of my own blood pounding in my head. They were everywhere—in my hair, on my shoulders, on my face, my back, my chest. I raked my fingers through my hair, scratching the scalp. I imagined them getting tangled in the individual strands, forever attached to me. “Help!” I'd started crying. I didn't care. If it got them off of me, so be it. 

They crawled into my ears, into my mouth, up my nose, and I knew I was going to die. No matter how I fought, I would suffer a horrible, painful death with these roaches eating me away from the inside. 

I wanted to light myself on fire. 

The nails of my right hand clawed across my chest beneath my shirt, but I barely registered the pain. I could feel them skittering beneath my skin. I had to rip them out.

“Taki! Stop it! Taki!”  

Mel grab my arms, forcing my hands away.  

“Get a hold of yourself! Please!” She fought me, trying to keep me still. I hit the floor and two weights shackled around my wrists, keeping them pinned down. My eyes were still closed, and I felt my heart racing so quickly, it hurt. I couldn't breathe. Terror had stolen my voice, replacing it with sounds I didn't recognize, primal sounds, pleading, pathetic, and mimicking those of a child who'd lost everything. I thrashed beneath the weight holding me down.

If the roaches didn't end my breath, the pure terror-spike through my heart would.

A frail female voice slipped past the panic, past Mel's pleading cries, right into my mind, taking over all sense of sound.

_I wanna go back to zero._

Something inside me cracked. 

An image leaked through it like mist, clearing away the darkness. It looked like iron shavings enslaved to the pull of a magnet. It flashed through my minds eye, replacing the darkness with such power that my limbs froze and the air hitched in my throat. 

_I stared out at a sprawling, colorful metropolis speckled with lights, and filled with tall, slick buildings flush up against one another. Intermixed with those were ancient structures. Hundreds of humans moved in random directions like insects themselves, filling the multi-lane crossing, then emptying out cleanly to make way for motor traffic. My kind roamed everywhere –numbering more than I'd ever seen in my whole life. Yet through all the dense bustle, not one animal moved among them._   

“Listen to me, please!”

_Mel's voice speared through my ear, almost inside my head, and thus, the memory._

_“Calm down. You're going to hurt yourself!” She gasped. “Taki! Breathe!”_

_For a split second, her voice morphed into one more mature from a smiling, blurry, but familiar silhouette standing in a living room I knew well. I recognized the friendly voice I'd only heard over the phone for the past five years.  “We'll be ok.”_

_Mom..._

A sharp pain shot through my face, shattering the memory back into the fog.

“Taki, please! There's nothing on you! Breathe! Open your eyes!” 

I gasped, and coughed. My paralyzed lungs relaxed, allowing me to do as Mel asked. My heart gradually settled below rib-breaking pain. The brush of insect feet against my skin faded away. I blinked a few times past the moisture beading in my eyes until I could focus on a head of brown hair pressed against my shoulder. 

She lifted her head and leaned up. “Taki?”

Her face became clear. The sting needled my left cheek. “Mel...ow.”

“Finally.” She sighed in relief. “You completely spazed. You went nuts and starting tearing at your skin. I was afraid you were going to claw your eyes out.” 

The weight on my chest was her. I realized she'd pinned me to the floor with her entire body to keep me from ripping the skin off my muscles—which I'd tried to do. I focused on her green eyes until my imagination numbed the sense of the roaches. I waited for my pulse to steady before testing my raw voice again. “I saw this...place...”

She smiled lightly, then mimicked my own promise to her. “Whatever you remembered, we'll talk about it when we get out of here, ok?”

That sounded reasonable. I steadied my breathing, though my chest hurt from within, and without. What I'd remembered was triggered by the power in the emotion that nearly scared me to death. 

“Are you ok now?”

I nodded. “Yeah. You can get off me.”

She bit her lip, worried that I'd start trying to flay myself alive again.

“Really,” I assured her. “I'm good.” 

Finally believing I had control over my own senses, she shifted to sit on the floor as I sat up and looked myself over. Just as she'd said, I was bug-free, but I now sported three bloody gashes across my pecs. I looked around. All corners of the house were clear. We were the only living creatures in the room. My eyes darted to the bathroom door, yet not a single set of antennae appeared along the slim space at the rug. 

My dry swallow scraped against my vocal chords. “Where did they all go?”

“There was never anything on you.” She stood and went to the kitchen to wet a shred of wash cloth, wrung it out, and returned to where I sat. Without a word, she held out the faded green-tinted cloth.  

I realized what she wanted to do, and complied by lifted the hem of my shirt. 

The press of the cold, moist rag against the wounds sent a sting along my torso. 

She silently wiped away the blood, then pressed the rag to the scratches for a moment to stop the bleeding. It tingled, then went numb. 

“What did you put on that?” 

“Just water.” Satisfied, she tossed the blood-stained rag back to the kitchen. 

I stared at the arched golden wings of the bird design on the back of her shirt, split by her long hair as she crossed the room to the bathroom and opened the door. 

My heart jumped, expecting a torrent of roaches to flood out, but all that met us was the bland interior made even more so when she turned on the light. 

“I thought you said you crushed a bunch of them,” She looked at the clean floor, moving with caution –she hated bugs, too. 

“I did. I—don't open that!” I reached out, but was too late. She'd already lifted the toilet lid. I stiffened, waiting for the inevitable blood-curdling scream...but it never came. Instead, she stepped back and covered her mouth to stifle a gag reflex. 

“Ugh.” She closed the lid, turned off the light, and shut the door. “There's no roaches, but the bowl hasn't been cleaned in forever. You're right. I don't wanna pee in there.” 

Disbelieving, all I could do was stand up with my mouth gaping open. I wanted to double check if she told the truth, but couldn't will my legs to move farther than a few steps forward, bringing me to the middle of the room. “What? Th-they were everywhere,” I repeated. “They were...I don't...” I combed my fingers through my hair. “I hallucinated?”

“Yeah. Pretty badly, too.” She dug into her pocket and pulled out a green leaf. With her thought, it turned into the bread we'd found. “I've had some of this like you did, so it's not the bread.”

“That leaves the cookies.”

“But I didn't see anything.” She covered a gasp. “What if I'm next? What if I'm going to see something frightening, too?” Her voice squeaked. “You have to make sure I don't go berserk like you did. Taki, I'm counting on you.”

I stared transfixed at the door. If she was doomed to experience this horror, I'd need to help her out of it. That wouldn't be easy right now, since I couldn't form a full sentence in my head without serious effort. Whatever caused the hallucination lingered. I felt the fingers of its power softly petting my consciousness, threatening to stab me again. I rubbed my arms. It would take a while to rid myself of the sense of those bugs crawling all over me. 

“Hey,” She releafed the bread and put it back in her pocket. “Are you going to be ok? You're still shaking.” 

“Yeah. I'll be fine.” I could tell she harbored concern for my sanity. Not that I could blame her. I did just see the house filled with my personal horror. I took a deep breath. “I can handle any bug but roaches, even tarantulas, scorpions, and bees. But them? Nah. Something about 'em just really gets to me. I pushed my villagers to get Leafside to 'perfect town' status as fast as I could just so I wouldn't have to see one again. That's...literally it. They all thought it was for the good of the town, but the real reason is pretty selfish. I don't even know why I'm so afra—“ 

My words cut off when she suddenly wrapped her arms around me. She held onto me, but it was far different from when she'd kept me from harming myself from the lucid nightmare. 

I'd been hugged before, of course, but not often by another human. I'm the only one living in my town. It doesn't bother me, though. I have friends from other towns. Still, I wasn't going to push her away. This was rare and felt warm. 

After a moment, she let go. “I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do.” 

The touch somehow helped. I calmed down. How do you thank someone for that?

I watched her move to the door at the back of the room, run her hands through her hair, and exhaled. “I checked this earlier. The key you have is too small. Maybe there's one hidden around here somewhere.” She occupied herself with searching the room.

I steeled my courage to keep it together. We still weren't reunited with our friends, and we remained in the heart of Aika village. We had a long way to go to obtain freedom. 

I put on my jacket and joined her in the search.

My foot crunched over a fallen picture, knocked off its stand from my earlier panic. The frame was made of thick plastic, but it lacked a glass cover. I picked it up and removed the photograph. The three people were the same family as the one I'd found in Fang's house.

Only this time, all that remained visible was the girl's face. The visages of her parents were scrawled out in black permanent marker. 

The photo crinkled in hand as I turned it over. On the back were three unrecognizable words written cleanly in pen. Someone took great care to make it look presentable. Beneath it was a paragraph in neat columns. I felt bad that I couldn't read it, since it was in the same strange language as everything else around here. However, below it, a solitary line of text written in Animaleese caught my eye. The letters fit together awkwardly, like a child with poor finite muscle control scribbled it. 

'I love my mommy.'  

What happened to this family? Were one of these people Sayaka? Were they...in those graves?

“Hey, come here!” Mel waved me over to the paulownia dresser. 

I lay the picture face up on the side table and joined her. 

She'd opened the top drawer with all the doll parts. “There's something in here.” Gingerly, she parted the collection of severed legs, arms, naked torsos, and eye-less heads. She withdrew a small clear glass bottle half filled with a light blue liquid and held it up. It fit easily in her palm. “What is this stuff?”

“No idea.” It looked like juice. I reached out for it and she let me examine it. It was strange, of course, but what caught my attention was the wire wrapped around the short neck for decoration. I guess this wasn't considered 'dangerous,' or it was overlooked by the animal who cleared this place out. The liquid inside sloshed as I uncoiled the wire, then handed the bottle back to Mel.

She leafed it and put it into her pocket.

My idea might not work, but it was worth a try. I folded and twisted the wire until it formed a slim but solid spike. New tool in hand, I moved to the back door and slipped the makeshift lock pick into the keyhole. It took precise movements that required my full concentration. The level of focus further drove back the fear until I could take over and repress the rest of it where it belonged. 

A soft 'click' rewarded my efforts “I got it,” I smiled in triumph and leafed the lock pick. “Hurray for small victories.”

“When did you learn to do that?”

“One of my former villagers taught me. I'd locked myself out of the town hall and my secretary was on vacation to Tortimer's Island.” 

I gripped the cold brass knob, turned it all the way to the right, and pushed. 

It creaked on rusty hinges that hadn't seen lubricant in years. A gust of cold air 'wooshed' over us, like the room could finally exhale.

The musk of antiques, mold, and wood polish carried on its back. It smelled like an old garage that hadn't had its dust stirred for years. We both coughed at the odor of time bound by the walls, and stared into the abyss. 

Neither of us moved for a good minute.

We remembered the commotion earlier, and knew its source lived within the darkness of this room, lurking between us and the possibility of freedom.

A sense similar to the one that strange voice embodied created a prickly ball in my gut, urging me to stay close to her—not for my sake, but for hers.

\----------------- 

TBC 


	7. Go Ask Alice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A maze of bookshelves, a predator in the darkness, and a cryptic note left by "Alice" hiding something from her "Hatter." Taki is no longer alone in remembering. The house of horrors draws out more questions surrounding the mysteries of Aika Village.

**CHAPTER 7: Go Ask Alice**

“Well, standing around isn't going to find us an escape route.” I crossed the threshold and brushed my hand along the wall in the darkness. Dust collected in fluffy wads at my palm, and I swear I'd destroyed a spider web or two. My fingers touched the light switch, and in a click of power, one old fashioned Tiffany lamp on a small end table by the door lit up. I was surprised the bulb still worked. 

Its weak yellow glow bled through the room through dirty glass, feebly illuminating tall wooden bookshelves flanking a narrow path that cut a 90 degree turn to the left just up ahead. I looked up at the plain ceiling. 2 feet of clearance lived between it and the tops of the shelves. A neat-freak, or someone suffering from claustrophobia would have their own livid nightmare in here. 

“Looks like no one's set foot in here in a while.” Mel swept her finger across the lamp, revealing a line of brilliant colors. "Or cleaned."

The moment we moved forward, a solid whine echoed through the room. It sounded like a scream. However, when we held still, the sound leveled out. I took a testing step forward and the sound pitched slightly upward.

Mel covered her ears. “What is that?”

The further in we moved, the higher the whine grew. I turned the corner to the left, and the pitch lowered. Curious, I backstepped to the 90 degree turn. The pitch lilted upward, like the panic of whatever produced that noise increased if I went that direction. It screamed at us to stay away. That told me the source was on the other side of the room. 

I walked back to Mel, who lowered her hands as the pitch returned to a resting level. "No idea. I've never heard that before."

We followed the pathway up, then right to face two more shelves and a fork in the path. All the while, the whine followed our movements. How could anything see us within this maze of shelves in the way?

We reached a dead end. Only it wasn't vacant.

A cluster of note paper lay on a small, worn, writing desk in a neat pile next to a pencil broken in half. One sheet with writing on it took center stage in front of a simple wooden chair.

A lamp identical to the one by the entrance lay in pieces on the floor. “I guess we know what made that noise earlier.”

Mel examined that while I took a look at the nearest books. I pulled one down, bringing with it a thin veil of dust. The book's spine crackled as I opened it, releasing the smell of old binding glue into the air. It reminded me of a few of the old books left behind by the previous mayor of Leafside back in my office in town hall. Each book I checked held the same truth. “These are all in that odd language... Wait a minute,” The row above that held books written in a different form, where the words printed horizontally instead of vertically. 

Intrigued, I moved down the path to check more. Every book shelf held literature composed in different languages intermixed between Animaleese. “What's with this place?”

“Taki?” 

I glanced over my shoulder.

She stood with the page in her hands. “I can read this,” she whispered in surprise at her own knowledge.

I stood beside her out of curiosity. My eyes widened in shock. Not only could she understand the writing, but so could I. It wasn't the same as the odd language, or anything on the two shelves I'd examined, but it also wasn't in Animaleese. I read it allowed.

“'Green releases what's trapped. Blue unlocks an unreachable path. Red returns you to zero. I know the truth, but they don't believe me. He will never have all the pieces. I am Alice, and he is my Hatter. I've released the trapped, walked the unreachable path, but I can't be returned to zero... at least, not as I am now.”

The memory of that voice from earlier returned. I wondered if it was this same girl, or if Mel heard it, but I was too afraid to ask in fear of coming off as crazy. I exhaled. “It ends there.”

“No, that's not cryptic at all,” Mel unleafed the clear bottle and held it up. “I wonder if this is the 'blue' she's talking about.”

I shrugged. “By that logic, there's a green and red bottle somewhere. And what did she mean by 'unreachable path?' Honestly, I'm curious what it's all about.”

“I don't care. Alice can stay in her wonderland.” She releafed it and shoved it into her pocket. “I just want to go home.” With a new vigor to escape, she moved quickly down the open row of shelves. The tone whined upward with her movement. 

I followed. Whoever "Alice" is or was, she had her own issues that we didn't need to get involved in.

We snaked our way to the back of the room and found yet another barred window over a side table up against a wall supporting a marker lamp (I dubbed them 'marker lamps,' because they'd been situated in key places or dead ends to provide pathetic puddles of light). 

I knelt on the table to try to pull the bars loose when the tone's pitch gradually rose. 

We exchanged nervous glances.

Neither of us were moving.

So what triggered the tone? 

A shiver crawled up my spine. It made me uneasy to be this close to a potentially dangerous situation without the ability to use a tool. Not only that, we were snugged into a tight maze with little room to dodge an attack with the threat of dead ends down every unexplored bookcase corridor.

I heard light, rapid ticking against the floorboards. The memory of the roaches returned. “Hey. Do you hear that?”

Mel listened, then made a slight sound of confirmation. “It's coming from the way we came. T-there's something alive in here.” She slipped back against the wall. 

I sighed in relief that I wasn't hallucinating again, and that she wasn't, either. However, that meant something very real and not producing footfalls resembling an animal or human occupied this room with us. 

She peeked around the bookcase down the row we'd just come through and clasped her hands over her mouth to keep from crying out. 

Her legs quivered as she back toward me. 

A multi-legged shadow stretched across the floor. The clicking grew louder in time with the increasing cry of the disembodied tone.

It stopped at the edge of the bookcase.

Two large, hairy legs tapped the floor almost in irritation.

“Tarantula,” I breathed. By the size of it, this was not a normal one. If Kenshin's theory was correct, a bite from one of these wouldn't simply make us pass out. We could become permanent residents the hard way. 

Mel's foot scooted back. I planted my hands on her shoulders to keep her from moving. Back on the train, she said she hadn't encountered these before tonight, but admitted she was terrified of spiders. “Don't run. It'll chase you. Stay still.” 

She trembled, fighting the instinct to scream.

The oversized arachnid walked in a disjointed manner up to us. Its dark, dirty body caught flecks of lamplight. 

She squeaked in fear behind her palms, and pressed herself back trying to get away.

It settled inches from her feet, staring at us with all 8 of its shiny, beady-black eyes.  
I could feel the pure panic exuding from her, which didn't help my previous situation still lingering on the surface. My trepidation regarding spiders wasn't this strong, which let me know this feeling didn't belong to me. It was hers, sent to me the same way she could sense my sorrow and frustration back in the house. It's also how I knew we both wordlessly cursed having received the 'fear' joke from the doctor comedians in our respective club LOL.

The rising whine of the tone embodied the shriek she couldn't release.

It watched us, octocreeping its bulbous double body in a half circle, then meandered off to our right.

Very slowly, I urged her to move with me to our left. Were it not for my grip, she would have collapsed.

We were close to the next isle when the spider turned abruptly and scurried back. 

I knew we hadn't aggravated it--it simply changed its mind--but its jerky motion snapped Mel's fragile control. She screamed, tearing herself away from me and bolted around the next corner out of sight.

“Mel, no!” I chased after her. We were officially screwed.

It arched its abdomen back in an omniprowl pose, hissed, and scurried after us. 

I leaped up to sit on a small table and whistled loudly to get its attention. I had to get it away from her. “Hey, ugly! Over here!”

The tarantula seemed confused, like it wasn't used to homing in on more than one person, but it chose the closest target: me. 

The soles of my shoes pounded against the old floor. Being chased by one of these mutants resembled nothing from the ones I would catch in my town. I had confidence that I could outwit them and snare them in my net at the exact second of attack, and if not, I would wake up in my house with one of my villager's there saying they were glad I was ok, and sporting a large medical patch on the bite mark. The spider's distraction with me would allow another animal to capture it to keep it from harming anyone else. The owl in my town's museum said they weren't poisonous, but whatever they secreted when they bit someone sure resembled venom.

These Aika Village giants were dangerous, mutant offshoots of the gene pool, and I didn't have my bug net. All I had was a lock pick and a key: absolutely useless items. 

Books thudded against the floor behind me, striking the shelves and the spider. I skid to a halt when I heard the tarantula hiss. 

“Rah!” Mel's arms were filled with literary projectiles. Her knees trembled and she cried out in terror at each chuck of a book. 

This time, it had enough. It ignored me, and again, set its eyes on her.

“Mel! Run!” I chased after it –first time for everything. 

Her panic took her out of sight near the other wall and close to the thing that was now emitting an ear-piercing squeal. I covered my ears, clenching my teeth. I wanted to crush it just to make it shut up. That's when I glanced to my left. In the corner, out of the way, stood a theremin on tall, spindly wooden legs. Now it made sense. The tone came from this instrument.

Mel's legs finally gave in to her fear, taking her to the floor at another dead end. She hurled anything she could grab at the angered, skittering arachnid. Her breathing turned into hyperventilation, weakening her screams.

The pallid light from the nearby marker lamp reflected in its eyes. It slowed, arched its body again with a hiss, and lunged. 

Mel curled to the side, grabbed a book, and slammed it across the spider's face, knocking it onto its back. She screamed so loudly it overshadowed the instrument. She scrabbled up against the wall. 

Running on adrenaline, I pulled the theremin away and shoved it over. It crashed to the floor. The tightened sine wave fluctuated, but held. My eyes narrowed at the spider. This thing wouldn't be allowed to bite anyone, or hurt anyone ever again! 

With a battle cry to rival the hero in my favorite video game, I planted my hands against the bottom and shoved it hard across the floor. It scraped and bounced along the way. I forced all my strength into my muscles, and crushed it into the bookshelf. Its tall antenna pierced the spider's body completely through in a spatter of juices. Books tumbled from their place, but the shelf—bolted to the floor—held strong. 

The tarantula's legs twitched, quivered, and fell limp. The theremin's eerie voice tuned down and died with it.

I let up on my rage and sat back, panting. My rib cage was still sore from the near-cardiac arrest from earlier. This didn't help. 

Mel's breathing remained at hyperventilation level. Her eyes were so wide, the rounds of her green irises failed to touch her skin. She stared at the corpse a foot away from her. Its fangs were still moist. 

Were I a second too late, it would have bit her. There was no way to know if she would be unconscious, or...dead.

I scooted over to her. “Mel.” I placed my hand on her shoulder. She didn't flinch, didn't blink, and didn't seem to see me. Sadly, I knew from experience that she was drowning in her own panic. I could feel her heart pounding. “Mel. Calm down. Come on. Don't make me slap you like you did to me. I won't feel good about hitting a girl.”

She couldn't speak. Her thoughts were chaotic. Going with my instinct and taking from her previous lesson, I pulled her up into a hug. Her arms dangled at her sides. Something paralyzed her. “It's gone, Mel. You're all right.”

It took a few long moments, but eventually, her breathing evened out. Strength returned to her arms and she slowly wrapped them around me. I became her lifeline back from wherever the terror had spirited her away to. 

She buried her face in my shirt, and I barely heard her whisper, “I'm ok. I...saw something, too. A city...filled with people."

Breath hitched in my throat. Both of us had witnessed a scene through extreme emotion. I wanted to know more, to know if it matched with what I saw, and if she heard the voice too. But knew it was better to follow her words from before: we'll talk about it when we get out of here. Apparently we had a long conversation to look forward to.

I held onto her as long as she needed it.

A slight breeze brushed her hair over the back of my hand. Behind her where she'd leaned against the wall was a hole as big as my foot near the floor. That tarantula couldn't fit through there, so that meant it was trapped in here for some other reason. However, it was the only thing close to a way out we had. 

“Can you stand?” 

She nodded. 

I helped her to her feet and let go when I was sure she wouldn't collapse again. I tested the area around the opening for weaknesses. “We might have a way out. Help me. Find something we can break the wall with.” The distraction would also do her some good. 

I grabbed the lamp while she twisted a table leg off the theremin. We took turns bashing our tools into the plaster and wood, cracking it. Bits of aged, termite-ridden building material crumbled. I dropped the lamp and pulled at the sheets, tearing off small pieces. She did the same until we'd made the hole wide enough for our shoulders to fit through. 

“Go,” I urged. 

Mel got to her belly and wriggled through the hole. I freed her clothes when they caught on the rough surface until she was finally through. Then it was my turn.

The night air greeted us like old friends. Our escape let us out into a stone path edging the side of the house. Moss and weeds filled in the cracks from neglect. The trees nearby had lost all their leaves, the the flower beds housed the corpses of once vibrant roses and cosmos. Finally, we were out of that house of horrors. 

I helped her stand. We might be free, but we were still in Aika Village next to the ocean cliff, and far from the sanctuary of the tracks. 

“Thank you,” she offered me a small smile, “for keeping your promise.” 

I returned it in kind. “Sure. Any time.” 

We moved around to the back of the house quickly. 

The moment we stepped around the corner, a bug net swiped at us from out of nowhere. I instantly unleafed my wire lock pick and held it out in defense. Then my jaw dropped. “Oh my god. Kenshin!”

Kenshin grit his teeth, holding the bug net in both hands, and balancing on his left foot. His right pant leg drenched with dark, crusted blood. 

“Kenshin!” Mel happily embraced her friend. 

“Ah!” He buckled under her weight and dropped to the ground. The bug net clattered to the dirt.  “Mel...Taki... Finally.” 

She hopped back. “I'm sorry, I—“ She noticed his leg. “You're hurt. What happened?”

I ripped the end of my jacket with the lock pick. Taking the new shred, I began to tear the cloth at the hem in a strip. This jacket would be burned in the camp fire outside of my town anyway simply because it would forever remind me of Aika Village. Might as well put it to good use.

Mel glanced to me, then to him. “Taki, what are you--” then she realized my reason.

“It's cool. I'm over this jacket anyway.” I tore away the slashed fabric of his jeans below the knee, revealing the gash. I grimaced. It looked pretty bad. It was caked with blood and dirt, and knowing the trash level of this town, probably infected, too. “I gotta clean this off. This is gonna hurt.”

Kenshin cried out as the wound was cleaned as best it could be without water, and quickly bound by the dark blue jacket shred. “Thanks.” He picked up the bug net and used it to get back to his feet. Mel helped to take some of the burden. 

“Kenshin,” She asked, “Where's Cecelia? What happened to you?”

“He took her,” Kenshin swallowed against the pain.

“Who took her?” Mel softly prodded for clarity.

“The man in the Joker mask.”

Mel and I looked at each other, then back. We had no idea who he was talking about, but it was probably another human, and judging by Kenshin's injury, definitely one to avoid.

“Where did he take her?” I asked.

Kenshin looked me in the eye. “Re-Tail.” I didn't see fear there, but I saw a deep, serious worry.  The unspoken truth revealed itself in his silver eyes; he'd fought for her and lost.

“Then let's go get her back,” Mel said reassuringly. “All of us. Let's not split up again.”

We both agreed. We had a little safety in numbers, and we'd need it if we ran into Sarah again, or this Joker masked man. Or worse...

Octavian. 

“Do you know where Re-Tail is?” I helped Mel so the three of us could move faster.

Kenshin nodded. “It's close to the cliff heading north. I passed it on the way here.”

“Good. We should move. We're kind of on Octavian's hit list.”

“Who?”

Mel and I looked relieved that our friend didn't have the pleasure of shaking all 8 of that villager's arms. "An octopus who threatened to throw us into the ocean."

“We escaped from his prison,” Mel offered. “We're in deep trouble if he finds us.”

“I see,” Kenshin stated in a bland tone. “Fill me in on the way?”

As we told him the story from fleeing Fang's house to present time, my faith in our ability to escape Aika Village waned. Sure, we got out of that house, faced near death, and killed a venom-dripping monster spider, but I realized we were horribly unprepared for any of this.

We couldn't face a boss the way we are now. We would need better items if we intended on going to save the princess.

\---------- 

TBC


	8. The Best Laid Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kenshin faces Joker Mask as a distraction so his friends can rescue Cecelia, but finds he walked into a carefully planned trap set years before they'd arrived.

**CHAPTER 8: The Best Laid Plans**

Pain flared up my right leg with every hobbled step. I clenched my teeth against it and did as little to move any muscles as I could. Taki supported me at my left, while Mel had my right arm around her shoulders. 

Small raindrops blew in from the storm circling the town like vigilant, patient crows. We were in its eye. The wings of clouds swirled in a lazy spiral, spitting the occasional distant lightning strike from cloud to cloud. The calm we enjoyed now wouldn't last much longer. 

Although Re-Tail wasn't considered far from the house where I'd run into Taki and Mel, I felt every passing second of our journey there. 

We stopped near an old oak close to our destination. I leaned against the trunk as they took a short break to scan the open area ahead. 

The small yard, like much of the town, held patches of weeds, and poorly maintained shrubbery.

Re-Tail itself existed as a battered, faded, and paint-stripped shadow of the quaint second hand store I knew well. The pastel colors lost their battle to the corrosive claws of the salt sea air. Broken roofing tiles scattered beneath the eves. It was a corpse left exposed and bleached to the unforgiving hand of time and neglect. 

This whole town could be the body of some great beast who'd laid down, waiting to breathe its last.

“The lights are out,” Mel noted. She looked from side to side. “I don't see Octavian anywhere, either.” The atmosphere surrounding the small building made her fold her arms across her chest to protect herself. “It's not giving off the most welcoming sense. I never thought I'd ever be afraid to enter Re-Tail.” 

She started to move forward, but I grabbed her shoulder. “Hold on. He's expecting me, which means he'd be prepared to deal with me.” I let her go. “What tools do you guys have that we can use?”

They removed a pathetic amount of leaves from their pockets. The combination could easily fit into one hand. 

“See,” Taki began, like confessing a crime to his parents, “we lost everything we had back at the cemetery. I just have a key and a lock pick.”

“I have food and a bottle of blue stuff,” Mel unleafed the bread and handed it to me. “You can have the rest if you're hungry.”

My leg's constant screams for attention had held any hunger at bay, but in order to heal, and to keep up my strength, I accepted the stale bread and ate it. It tasted like cardboard. 

They returned the items to their pockets. “Please tell me you have something we can use,” Taki begged. 

I withdrew the remaining leaf in my pocket, leaving the black-leafed tarantula alone. “Just my bug net. He took the golden ax.”

“He has an ax?!” Taki balked. “Perfect. We're going in with trinkets and a net, and he has a tool that can take down a tree.”

I frowned. Yes, the situation looked grim. On top of that, I would have to explain to our mayor why I lost the golden ax. It wasn't even mine. I'd borrowed it to chop down a tree in the way of the new campground right before I left home. It was a last minute decision. Judging by how empty all of our pockets were, we were all hoping to fill up the space with as much antidote as we could carry. Our preparedness screwed us over in the end. 

“Either way, Kenshin's right,” Mel said. “We still need a plan.”

Taki snapped his fingers. “I got it. We'll use Kenshin as bait.” 

“Excuse me?” I arched an eyebrow. 

“He's after you for some reason, right? Well, now you have backup. If you can distract him, Mel and I can get Cecelia, and then once she's safe, the four of us will make a break for it.”

“Seeing as I'm the only one of us without the ability to feel fear, using me in this manner makes sense.” I could maintain a cool head, keeping Joker Mask's attention on me, while my friends saved the small mayor of Sugarpine. 

“Wait,” Mel's expression turned to worry. “Are you sure about this? You're ok with being used as a distraction?”

I nodded again. 

I felt Taki reclaim support of half of my weight, followed by Mel, who understood the unspoken confirmation that the plan to distract and run started now. 

We quickly crossed the open yard without any issues. The cobble stones in front of the store were still dark from the recent rain. I read the worn-out sign beside the front door that normally advertised the day's special item to sell for more bells. Someone long ago had hastily-painted the phrase, 'Re-Tail: Temporarily Closed Forever' on the dark wood surface.

All of us noticed this, but Taki was the one to speak up. “I've seen that same message whenever I've had dreams of other town's I've visited.”

I agreed. 

“Me, too. What if this is all just a dream?” Mel wondered. 

“Can't be,” I said. “We're all here. And this is way too real.” The cut that sliced through my calf reminded me of that with every beat of my pulse. “Besides, it's been proven that you can't read in dreams. That side of the brain isn't active. You put together what you think you read when you wake up. Plus, you can't dream of a place you've never seen before.”

That made Mel and Taki share a look of confusion. There lived a secret between them within that look, perhaps a shared experience that affected them while we were separated.

Taki opened the door slowly to minimize the light bell chime announcing our presence.

I reached up to grab the bell and kept a hold of it as we slid inside and closed the door behind us. No reason to set off any alarms proclaiming our presence. This was a stealth mission after all. 

The animals had cleared out most of the store except for the floor pallets that once presented used items for sale –4 in the middle, and one long one at the back. To the right rested a raised platform that the craftsman used to conduct item repairs or makeovers. Aside from folded up cardboard boxes and hollow shelves linings the walls, Re-Tail had long ago been gutted, stripped, and abandoned.  

Mel flicked the light switch by the door, but nothing happened. She looked up and frowned. All of the light bulbs were missing from the two hanging lights. 

“I don't get it,” Taki looked out the heart-shaped door window to make sure we hadn't been followed. “Why would this guy want you to come to Re-Tail if Cecelia's not even here?” 

“This place might as well be an empty shack.” Mel said. 

Curious, I limped to the workstation and rummaged through all the drawers in the repair corner. My search only garnered sawdust and paint stains. “Even the tools are gone.” 

“Shh, guys.” She hushed us. “Listen. Do you hear that?” 

We held completely still. A far distant rumble of thunder bled through the wooden wall slats. I strained my hearing. The faint tinkling of a music box leaked into our ears. Creepy music. Something telling of happiness. In the middle, it shifted to a sad, lonely tune, then back to the normal song, as though remembering it was supposed to be happy. The light chord changes were a protective barrier, a layer of fake smiles encapsulating the truth. It was very...hypnotic. 

Her expression shifted to recognition. “It's the song in the piano room; the one on the sheet music. I know this song.”

We listened as the music slowed and softly came to an end. 

A light pitter-patter of rain began to pelt the rooftop. The calm in our storm had ended.

Her eyes flicked to the two of us, pleading for validation of her own sanity. “P-please tell me you heard that.”

Taki sat on a pallet and answered, like he knew she needed to hear it. “Yeah.” 

I nodded.

She released a slight breath. “Well,” She shrugged. “Now what?” 

Taki glanced between his feet and noticed faint scratch lines on the floorboards. Curious, he got to his hands and knees to peer through the slim space between the pallet and the floor. “Hey. It looks like this was recently moved.” He pushed the pallet slowly. It scraped against the wood, revealing a thin square outline cut into the floor. A small hole just big enough to fit four fingers cut into the middle of one side. 

“A trap door?” I limped over to take a look. Since Re-Tail had no separate store room, keeping everything underground instead seemed logical. I wondered if the Seaside branch contained the same feature.

Mel held up her hand. A shiver pulsed through her, betrayed by her vocal chords. “The music's back. It got louder.” Her gaze settled on the floor cutout. “That must be where it's coming from.” 

“Cecelia might be down there.” It only made sense.

“One way to find out.” Taki pulled it all the way open. 

A chill breeze that carried the tang of burned electrical cables and wood rot swept up from the depths. The stairs descended down and to the right into a dim golden light. Without it, this would mimic an endless plunge into a void. 

I gave Mel the leaf representing my bug net. I could tell she was nervous, but her level of fear had subsided, either as a result of having Taki and I as support, or due to the massive rush of constant adrenaline on her nervous system. I pressed my hand lightly to the top of her head. 

This girl I'd only known for three months, with the temper of a campfire, and kindness of a duckling...I wanted to protect her like my little sister. In the short time I'd known her, that's what she became to me: my family. “It'll be fine, Mel.” I assured her. “Wait a few of minutes and then when you see he's not paying attention to Cecelia, go got her, ok?”

Her head bobbled up and down as the leaf transformed into the tool at her thought and her small hands clenched the silver handle. 

I sat at the edge of the steps and used my upper body to steady my balance as I moved down each one. I kept my right foot elevated. It made the trip slow, but stealth demanded caution.   
“Be careful,” I heard her whisper above the music box melody. 

The song's volume rose as I left my friends behind and entered the unknown. A tall, slim shadow cast across the floor as I neared the end of the short hall. I paused and listened. The music box slowed again and died. The tell-tale clam shell clicked closed. 

“Still nothing?” a tenor male voice interrupted the silence. 

I recognized it immediately: Joker Mask. 

A higher feminine voice answered back in a pleading tone. Cecelia. “No, I've told you a hundred times, you idiot. I don't know that song at all. I'm not who you think I am. Just let me go already.”

“Come on, stop lying to me. You have the doll,” his voice growled in impatience. “You keep saying it's yours, but it's not.”

“It is mine,” Cecelia defended. 

I could clearly picture her clutching the doll in the red dress to her chest like before. What was it about that toy? She wouldn't let it go, like her life depended on it. A shot of pain spurred up my leg. I grunted lightly. 

“It belonged to her. You have it, so that means you're—“ Joker Mask paused. “Well,” his voice shifted to a more arrogant, smug timber. “Looks like we finally have company. It's about time.”

I limped into the room. It only took a few seconds to take in my surroundings.

As I suspected, this was a storage basement. The stairs were the only way in or out. The cement brick walls held lines of water stains from a pipe that dripped slowly, but steadily from a soggy rag wrapped in a vain attempt to mend it. The room angled back to my left to a small alcove filled with the rusty desiccated shells of broken gyroids thrown carelessly into a pile. Their arms jutted up around vacant, dark expressions of permanent shock. 

Gyroids were everywhere. They lined the floor edging the walls in patches of varying heights of faded green, orange, brown, and dirty white. They perched on boxes, leaned up against each other stacked in haste, and some had toppled over. It was a disturbing captive audience staring blankly in different directions. 

Up ahead were two work tables set up to create a right angle. Mechanical parts littered one entire table next to a gutted, round gyroid hooked up to an audio mixer, while the other table supported a computer terminal. The music box clam shell rested near the edge next to my ax and a pile of leaves I assumed belonged to my friend.

What caught my attention was a large sheet hiding three objects of varying heights to the right of the tables. I knew instantly they were gyroids. The sheet wasn't wide enough to cover the downward-tilted arms indicating they were deactivated. For some reason, he wanted to keep these dust and moisture free. I always found these things to be weird and a little creepy. The sheet made them look like ghosts.

To the left beside a support beam flush up against the wall, on a worn decorative square rug was a narrow minimalist bed on which sat the target of my rescue mission. 

Cecelia gasped. “Kenshin!” Her hands were bound behind her back by a stripe of cloth, and her ankle was tied to the bed frame by a hemp rope. Her blue hat was gone, revealing the full flow of her red, curly hair draping over her dress.  

I was wrong about her clutching the doll, but it did sit on the pillow next to her. 

The slim purveyor of this evil lair wore a ragged, grease-stained blue and white striped racer t-shirt and jeans. A long, light brown work smock hung around his neck. 

Joker Mask leaned against the computer table and folded his arms beneath the mask's two toned permanent smile. “I was beginning to wonder if you cared enough to bother, hero.”

“Let her go,” I ordered.

He unfolded his arms. “I see you're not a fan of small talk.” He picked up the ax and patted it idly in his hand. “Well, I am. It's not often I get to talk to someone who isn't a dirty animal, clusternut crazy, or a mumbling, brain-fried shut-in. That last one is kind of my fault, by the way,” he added loosely. “How's that leg of yours? Does it hurt? Sorry about that. You can imagine living here for so long has made me a little...reactive.” 

I kept my sights on him, and on the ax in my peripheral. How could someone's mental state be his fault?

He looked me up and down with eyes of a pale watery blue, like a creature who spent its whole life living in the shadows. “You're still not afraid? Even after I sliced open your leg?”

“Kenshin,” Cecelia rushed her words, trying to get out as much as possible, “Don't do anything he says. He's nuts. He—“

Joker Mask quickly gagged her with a blue cloth draped around her neck. She cried out in muffled rebellion behind the fabric. 

I didn't move, but I couldn't ignore the need to get her out of here quickly. “Cecelia, are you ok?”

She nodded, but I could see the trepidation in her eyes. She wasn’t just afraid for herself, she was afraid for me. This other human had already proven himself to be dangerous. The evidence crusted in dried blood around my wound.

“She’s fine. I’m keeping her nice and comfy.” Joker Mask poured water from a ceramic pitcher into a plastic cup as Cecelia argued back from behind her gag. The pitcher stood out of place on the table. It looked like something a grandmother would own. “You look thirsty. Here.”

“I’m good.”

“Come on, you’ve been in this town all night. You did what I asked, you came to me, so consider this a small apology for your current gimpy state.” He offered out the cup.

Cecelia shook her head from side to side.

“It’s just water.” He sighed behind the perpetual smile. “Fine, if it’ll make you feel better…” He set the first cup on the table next to me, then filled a second cup from the pitcher. He lifted up the edge of his mask, and gulped down the water.

I caught a glimpse of bumpy scar tissue going up his left cheek before the mask concealed it again.

“See? Just water.”

I limped over to the table, braced my right hand against it to take all the weight from my foot, picked up the cup, and examined its contents. “It’s a little on the green side.”

“These aren’t the cleanest pipes in town. Fang never replaces anything unless it directly affects him. He doesn’t care about us. Not since She left.”

Even though it was raining before hand, he was right, my throat was dry. Still, I knew better. 

He let out a growling sigh. He swiped up the pitcher and dumped the contents into a small shop sink in the corner. He turned the squeaky knob to refill it, returned to the table where he threw the water from my cup across the room, and refilled it. “There. Are you happy?”

I took a small sip. It's metallic flavor was reminiscent of old plumbing. Other than the flavor, nothing was amiss. I downed the water quickly.

Joker mask stared unblinking at me. 

If he was smiling, I couldn’t tell, but I did feel like he was examining me. I picked up a broken part from a shattered clay gyroid. “You have a thing for gyroids?”

“Not really. They’re weird looking and creepy,” he tapped a severed gyroid head on the table with the ax. It let out a dull ‘clang.’ “But they are useful.”

“Useful for what?” I needed to stall, to get him to turn away from the stairs and Cecelia. He seemed megalomaniacal enough to take the bait. I shuffled more to the right so he’d have to turn his head away from the door to keep me in sight. “Don’t they just make noise?”

He chuckled with hidden knowledge. “Just make noise, Haha. You could say that. These gyroids appear after it rains no matter what the animals do. I dig one up whenever I can. It's painstaking dirty labor without a shovel, but it's what I have to do in order to complete my work.”

“Your work? Is that what this....lab is for?”

“Ding ding ding! We have a winner. Welcome to my secret lab, Kenshin.” 

“It's interesting. Not what I expected. This looks like a poorly kept gyroid collection and a personal sound system.” 

“Ah, and that's where you're wrong. This,” he spread is arms to indicate the whole of the room, “is a seminal piece of art –my magnum opus—my,” he inhaled slightly, savoring the visions of victory in his mind, “legacy to humanity.” He placed his hand on the tallest green gyroid that reached his head height. 

I simply stared at him, waiting for more of an explanation. 

“What do you think I've been doing in this pit-stain of a town for the past eight years? Wallowing in a cloud of my own fart? They won't let me out, so I have to do what I can here. It takes a long time to gather everything I need in secret.” He turned on the computer screen. A program displaying colorful audio waves cast an eerie blue glow in the dim light of the single overhead lamp. His fingers typed quickly against the keyboard. “Instead of wasting time explaining it, let me just show you. It'll be more fun.”

A low hum resonated from the gyroids beneath the dirty sheet. It morphed into a rapid oscillating wave of sound. Another dissonant tone joined it, followed by a third a few steps higher.

Cecelia let out a cry, wriggling to free her hands. 

Joker Mask held out his hand. “Your joke book. Give it to me.”

"Why?”

The scalpel weapon from his water container earlier was out of his smock pocket and leveled at Cecelia’s jugular in seconds. He slid a side glare to me, narrowing his pale blue eyes. Impatience sparked in them. “Do it!”

Grudgingly, I fished it out of my pocket, unleafed it, and handed it over.

The scalpel lowered slowly as he purred a contented response. “That’s a good boy.” He swiped it from my hand.

My head felt fuzzy from the sounds, but I refused to let any discomfort through for his enjoyment. “You're harming her. Stop.”

“She can't feel a thing. She won't feel any of this. And neither will I.” Joker Mask hummed in a sing-song tone of amusement as he flipped through my book. “But you will.” He sneered beneath the mask, speaking like a crouched animal about to attack its prey. “You'll feel everything.” He adjusted the settings on the screen. 

One of the low tones dipped slightly lower at another typed in command, so the three of them let out a quick pulsing harmonic triad. The fuzzy sense turned into the fine silk of threads weaving through my skull. My eyes twitched. 

He set my joke book next to the computer, open to the pages showing the six jokes I'd learned from the comedian axolotl in my town. He tapped the side of his mask in thought. “Hm...'Confusion, Thought, Curiosity, Happiness, Anger, Sadness.' Whoever set up shop in your town is hand-holdy with you. I wonder why?” He shrugged. “Oh well. Training wheels off.” 

He manipulated the program to send a new signal to the gyroids. The bass tones slid up to a repeat of a full, but augmented fourth. The notes swung between two angelic chords. 

The sudden warmth swelling through my chest and through my body caught me off guard. I felt whole, reassured, and as if the clouds had dissolved away. My thoughts tumbled through memories of my time in Seaside with Mel, and Kosei, and the villagers. I thought of the smell of fresh coffee from the Roost mixed with the scent of petrichor on rainy days when Mel would meet me for a bite to eat, and of the friendly competitions of bug and fishing tournaments, and races against Kosei –my best friend. Even Derwin the duck, who continued to share his food and jokes with me despite the fact that I never laughed at them.

Each person sheltered a different light that I needed, that I craved to be around. Even Cecelia and Taki held that light. I wanted my friends... my family... to be safe, to feel this kind of joy in simply being around them. The sweet smell of Mel's shampoo, the laughter of my best friend, the hope in Taki's eyes, the innocence within Cecelia...

I clutched my chest from the power it siphoned out of me. This feeling wasn't controlled, it was wild, flailing out at everyone I knew. I wanted to clutch the first familiar face I saw and hold them tightly, to feel their heartbeat, and to know they were alive and I was lucky enough to be there. I wanted to stay with all of them. 

It hurt. “What.....what is this.....” I gasped. 

“How are you enjoying 'Love,' Kenshin?” Joker Mask asked. “I figured you'd never felt that before, so I implemented the full deal. One hundred percent. Thinking of kissing anyone?”

I heard the gyroid tones fade back to a normal hum. Despite being released from the forced emotion, I wanted to hold onto it. I missed it. 

“Now that you know what love feels like, this will give your next experience more meaning. Have you ever experienced... Disappointment?” 

I opened my mouth to ask what he meant by that, when the threads in my mind pulled together. I glanced to the stairway. Its emptiness manifested as a heavy lead ball within my core that weighed my energy to the floor. My shoulders sagged, pulling my head down with it like my neck suddenly couldn't support its weight. Where were they? Taki and Mel should have been here to help me by now. I trusted them, but they'd abandoned me. I had to face this masked human alone. 

Why was I feeling this? My energy was gone. 

I glanced up to Joker Mask with a crestfallen expression. “What are you doing to me?”

He lorded his control over me like a jeweled crown on his messy hair –the king of his own apocalyptic nightmare, scribbling notes onto a worn notebook. “I'm freeing you, just like I'll free everyone from the same hold that binds you, that once bound me, Her, Sarah, and John. Humans have so many emotions, Kenshin, and I'm going to return them all.”

I found my voice. “How are you doing this?”

“Remember that water you drank?” He removed a small, corked glass bottle—the same as the ones used for medicine back home—with a minute amount of green liquid within, and sloshed it lightly. “I put a large batch of this in the fountains a few years ago. It's properties aren't water soluble, so it's potency remains the same as it did on day one. This town is cut off from everything. Our water supply keeps recirculating and refilling with rain. Eventually, it'll all cycle out, but that'll take years. Our lovely guest, and myself won't be affected at all, but for someone who hasn't unlocked all of their emotions yet? Well,” his head tilted upward as he held the bottle between two fingers up to the light, “my little chemical creation has this nifty ability to soften the barrier locking away your emotions, and sometimes memories if the emotion is strong enough. Certain sound waves emitted by gyroids work in tandem to shatter that barrier.” He clutched the bottle and sighed. “It's useless, now. It doesn't affect animals, and since everyone in this town has their emotions back, it's just green food coloring by this point. This is all that's left.” He pocketed the bottle once more.

My jaw slacked. I hadn't factored in the possibility that he could contaminate the whole town's water supply. A sliver of concern raised a red flag; I was now helplessly at the mercy of that green liquid absorbing into my system.

He entered in a new line of code. “A normal response to disappointment is anger, but you already have that one. I want to see you outraged. Show me your hatred.” 

That lead weight within me burned red from low, harsh musical notes moving up and down in jagged sine lines on the computer screen. Their dissonance vibrated around me, caging me in by their thorns. I felt that hot ball grow beyond what I knew into a monster I didn't recognize. The love and disappointment from before crushed beneath this new unleashed demon. 

My teeth clenched as it boiled up, heating the rapid breath in my lungs. What I felt wasn't human. It gnarled and spit, lacing up my spine. No matter what I did, it would burn me alive, it would incinerate my insides into blackened flakes of ash. 

My right hand clutched the table so hard, my knuckles turned white. I wanted to strike out, to scream, to throw the nearest object at this putrid excuse for a human calmly studying me. He hurt me, he harmed Cecelia, because of him our whole situation here was a god-damned mess. 

The pain in my leg disappeared. My face contorted in a cry of rage as I picked up the half of a gyroid face, held it over my head and bull-charged him. 

He dodged me at the last minute, and slashed the scalpel across my back at the right. 

I slammed into the bed. Cecelia screamed behind her gag and scrambled away. I must have looked like a beast from hell. 

I cried out at the hot pain aiding my outrage and hurled the gyroid part at him. It struck him in the left shoulder. 

“Ah!” He reeled back, clutching his shoulder. “Good.... Excellent,” He hurried back to the computer and typed quickly. “I love your violent streak, but let's go polar opposites. I want to see how you handle the drastic switch from hot to cold."

The three gyroids shifted tones to a higher, medium-tempo pulse in a perfect major triad.

I lunged for him again. As before, the sound waves pulsed through my body like it was made of air. The lava in my veins disappeared. I felt my limbs and mind fill with bubbles tickling every surface within me. A light chuckle from the sensation left my voice. It continued, strengthening until I was openly laughing. I couldn't stop. His stupid mask, these gyroids faces all staring with hollow expression into nothing...all of it increased the hysteria. I dropped to the floor as my wounded calf muscle gave up the burden of my weight. Tears pooled at my eyes. 

My own voice sounded alien. I'd never made this sound before, or felt so giddy. It was becoming hard to breathe. 

The tones softened, and I was able to calm my laughter. I caught my breath. “Stop....”

“Oh, I'm just getting started. There's still more to—“

The high pitched sound of muffled laughter roped his attention away. His eyes flicked to the stairs. “Oh. That must be Mel.” A disjointed chuckle left him. “What a weird time to laugh. I wonder if she got thirsty at some point? Is she without her emotions like you?”

“How do you,” I panted, “know about her?”

“You told me,” he crooned. A few taps of the keys turned the gyroids into a minor oscillating dissonant second chord. “When you told our small guest to go find 'Taki and Mel,' you betrayed them.”

My eyes widened from the induced shock. My jaw slacked as the memory returned. I'd given away our surprise attack without even knowing it. He wanted me to react this way, to see the revelation in my eyes. I was his puppet, and he was dancing with my strings. “No...”

He didn't allow me time to recover before switching to a somber tune that locked my voice in my throat. The tears slid down my face. My mouth gaped open from the stabbing sense of Sorrow. Absolute sadness. Wretched sounds left my throat. I curled around the pain of it and openly wept. He was controlling me, and I couldn't gain the frame of mind to stop him. 

Where were they? Why hadn't they tried to stop him yet? _Mel... Taki... Please..._

My nerves felt overloaded. I swallowed and forced my focus through the water flooding my eyes. 

He crouched down in front of me out of arms reach with his notebook ready. “How does it feel, Kenshin? This is the first time you're experiencing any of this since you got here. Tell me everything. For science.” 

I tried to push myself to my feet, but my right leg buckled beneath me. Fresh blood stained the blue jacket fabric where my action had reopened the wound. My lower back spasmed from the new cut. 

“I want them to see your face when I let you in on the one emotion you've been lucky enough to avoid until now.” His voice dripped its poison into my ear. “Tell me, Kenshin, have you ever felt... fear?”

\---------- 

TBC


	9. Chapter 9: Green Releases What's Trapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kenshin experiences an attack of emotions at once, but Fear resurrects something completely new from the depths of his memory.

**CHAPTER 9: Green Releases What's Trapped**

My tears stained the floor as the resurrected sense of 'shock' fought with the rest for dominance. My body became their battle ground.

The gyroid's melancholy tones thrummed through me. Every emotion Joker Mask unlocked swirled like colored dye in oil through my blood. My fingernails dug into the concrete. _No...they can't go through this. I can't let them be hurt. They have to get out of Aika Village and get away from here. We still have to rescue Cecelia. We have to get to Hana Valley! I won't let them down! I love them!_

We had nothing left to lose. I pressed my palms into the cold floor and screamed through the artificial sorrow. "Taki! Mel! Save Cecelia!"

"Kenshin!" Mel's voice broke through the mechanical song. She ran for me while Taki hurried to Cecelia.

Joker mask hastily grabbed the ax and held it at my throat. "That's close enough."

Mel froze, her eyes glued to the sharpened tool. Her jaw dropped at the sight of me. She had never seen me like this before. Uncertainty lit in her eyes. "What are you doing to him?"

Taki pulled down the gag from Cecelia's mouth.

She coughed and struggled against her bindings as Taki fought to untie the knot at her wrists. "Stop," she squeaked, "He can't handle much more of this."

"We can survive with all of our emotions intact. We don't need them babied out of us one by one. Your friend is my proof! No one gets in the way of my work. No one!" Joker Mask shifted slightly to reach the keyboard and pressed his index down on the enter key. A preset command, switching the sound waves to lines of green that shivered across the screen. The tones slowly began to shift.

I felt the other emotions slip back to wait as the new threat unlocked. Within those two breaths, my control returned. I got back to my feet, breathing hard from the stress, and relief at the break. "I don't feel anything. You failed."

Joker Mask slowly lifted the ax. He took one step toward me.

I instinctively stepped back. That was a new response for me. Normally I would hold my ground, but his posture like an angry wolf, and the light reflecting from the tool gripped in his hand put a knot into my throat. I could feel the throbbing of blood behind my eyes, and the pressure in my chest waiting to take over. What...is this...?

He paused, spun the ax once, and charged full force.

The freed emotion shattered through its barrier and strangled my mind. All other emotions went silent.

My heart slammed against my ribs. I back peddled, cried out, and turned to run toward the short hall to the stairs.

He was there blocking my path in an instant, swinging the ax in a figure eight.

I stumbled backwards holding up my hands in defense. My eyes locked on the forever-smile of the two toned mask. It became the face of my nightmares, eternally burned into my mind.

"I turned it all the way up so you could experience every tiny bit," Joker Mask sneered. "Judging by your physique, you have to be an athlete, so you can take a lot of abuse. What were you good at? Swimming? Baseball? Running? It'll be interesting to see how far you'll be pushed." He gripped the tool in both hands and forced me back with heavy strikes across the air, keeping anyone from getting close. "Feel it, Kenshin! This is the strongest emotion of them all! This is _fear!_ "

All color drained from my face. I screamed for my life. He cut off any plan I had, any route to escape. I tripped over gyroid parts and slammed into the wall. The ax scraped down inches from my ear a second later. I flinched and cried out, covering my head. Terror became all I knew. It blurred my vision beyond the tears of sorrow. It ravaged me with unbridled spikes stabbing me again and again and again.

"Kenshin!" Taki called out, still working on the knot around Cecelia's wrists. "What's wrong with him?"

"It's the gyroids," Cecelia explain through the ache of watching one of her friends tortured. "They're making sounds that wake up Kenshin's emotions because he drank water from the faucet. There's green stuff in it that lets it happen."

"Green stuff?" Taki's jaw slacked. He and Mel had a drink from the faucet as well back in the house. "His emotions? …All of them?"

Cecelia nodded. "He'll break Kenshin's brain like he did to John."

He knew I had never felt any of this, so I never had the time to develop a defense against them. "Kenshin! You have to calm down. You need to control this!"

My foot struck a gyroid on its side and I hit the floor close to the bed. I could hear my three friends, but couldn't decipher their words. I scrambled up against the wall, quivering and crying in pure horror. "S-stop, please, No," I begged. Weakness plagued my voice. "Don't hurt me."

Joker Mask lurked over me. The sharpened edge of the ax brushed its cold nail again my cheek, then down where it rested, edge in, over my clavicle.

I felt the pressure of its barely restrained bite through the fabric. The power in my fear turned his slim form into a hulking mass poised to inflict tremendous pain.

He pushed his hair back in arrogance at his own genius. "Fear is part of being human, Kenshin. It reminds us that we're alive. We need it."

I could feel sweat bead on my skin. I could sense the air pouring in and out of my lungs. My stomach churned in tense cramps. I gulped down air. Fear tortured my guts so much I felt like throwing up.

Panic mudded through my mind and filled my limbs with concrete. I embodied fear. It became me, commanded me, enslaved me, and overpowered me.

Something else in my psyche cracked.

My lungs seized up and my body became paralyzed. My vision took on a blue hue and in a heartbeat, I wasn't in the basement anymore.

_It was a beautiful evening fresh from a storm. I stood on an old narrow street flanked by thick, white stucco walls traveling down the length of the hill to the next street cutting right where a cluster of two storied, traditional-style homes were built. One of them belonged to my family for generations. High rise buildings towered in the distance beyond a small park with a pond. I was in a suburb of a city. Signs bearing words in the odd language were everywhere._

_My red bag slung across my shoulder, and in my arms curled up a small gray and white kitten –the same kitten in my home in Seaside. I'd rescued it earlier and was taking it home. My mom would make me clean the training room for a week the old fashioned way, but I knew she wouldn't say no. I took a step forward._

_A soundless flash of blue light appeared in the air above the pond, followed by a shock wave. There had been a few in the city so far, but this was the closest to me._

_It wasn't from a bomb blast._

_A long, low siren blared through the air immediately. Dozens of people appeared from doorways, cars stopped at the bottom of the hill, but no bipedal animals joined them. No dogs, cats, squirrels, or ducks. Just humans. Someone screamed 'Run!'_

_I held the kitten tightly and bolted for the street turning right, but didn't make it. I was out of time. I crouched down around the kitten, and watched. I felt its paw against my cheek, like it was wondering what was going on. I couldn't save it. I couldn't save myself, or my mom, or anyone. The terror that consumed the world had found its way here._

_A lack of sound followed next, leaving behind only the sensation of inhaling, and then..._

_...nothing._

I stared into the void, gasping in tight hitches of air.

"Hm?" Joker Mask leaned closer to study his specimen curiously –or rather, the faint blue glow emanating from my irises. "What's with your eyes? That's new. I've never seen that effect from anyone freed from the psychic block before. What's different about you?"

"Leave him alone!" Mel grit her teeth and faced down the armed insane human with the bug net at her guard.

Interrupted, Joker Mask glanced to her. "Giggles. You haven't freed all of your emotions yet, have you? I can do that for you. I can help you, too."

"Take your help and shove it up your butt with a fishing pole, you piece of eye crust," Mel snarled.

Joker Mask laughed and approached her. "That's a good one. You know, there are other levels besides fear for you life, or of physical pain. Things like," he swing the ax down at Mel, blocked a strike from the bug net, and grabbed her arm. She cried out as the bug net clattered to the floor and the ax set its sites on her throat. "fear for the life of someone you love. She was in your thoughts, right, Kenshin? I can see why. She's cute."

Mel tensed up and gripped her assailant's arms. "Kenshin... hold on... please."

His fingers twisted through her hair, forcing her head back with strength that threatened to tear the roots form her head. The air split with a 'woosh' of air, followed by the slicing of hair, and she fell forward. Joker Mask stood above her holding her long brown tresses in his fist. His laughter rang in rancid mirth.

Mel's scream lived in her trembling arms as she hit the floor. Strands of jagged hair fell in front of her wide eyes.

The fabric around Cecelia's wrists loosened. She wrenched herself free and started work on the rope around her ankle.

"Mel!" Taki tried to approach her, but was held at bay by Joker Mask's ax. His eyes locked on the gyroid trio. He grabbed a piece of scrap metal from the broken pile, and made a mad dash for the table. He bashed the metal repeatedly into the screen, the keyboard, anything he could find.

The audio from the gyroids faded down in pitch, and died. They slumped over, deactivated.

"No!" Joker Mask swung the ax widely, pushing Taki away from his precious invention. He frantically typed to resurrect anything, but ended up pounding his fist against the keyboard. "You ruined it! You ruined my experiment!" He threw the ceramic pitcher wildly at Taki. It missed and shattered against the hard floor. He fumed and tapped at his head. "It's all up here anyway. I'll create one even better than this!"

A ceramic shard tumbled close to the bed. Cecelia dropped to the floor, picked it up, and hacked desperately at the rope binding her ankle to the bed frame.

With the sound gone, I felt the resurgence of the other unlocked emotions. They didn't have a chance against this fear on their own. That meant I needed to use them, even though I didn't know how. I just needed to combat it long enough for everyone to escape.

The first emotion I felt that could match fear, sang an opposing tune: Outrage. Desperate, I drew it up from the mire.

It gave me the strength to stand. I pushed through the pain from the cuts and ground my teeth. _How dare he screw with me and my friends. How dare he harm my family, kidnap Cecelia, and treat me like a fool. I'll get him for this. I'll make him pay!_

My fists clenched, and the muscles of my arms twitched. With this in play, fear couldn't get a foothold. Control belonged to me once more.

My voice was soft, but when I spoke, venom dripped from my words. "Get. Away from him. Now."

I stepped forward, but in that second, Cecelia thrust herself between us. I felt the urge to strike out at her simply for being in the way. I held back. That wasn't me. I would never do that...

She spread her arms out wide with the doll gripped in her right hand. "Emerson, _stop!_ "

Joker Mask froze. He turned his eyes to face her. The ax went limp in his hand. "What?" he breathed. "You...remember my name?" The statement held a hint of joy, tears, and shock.

"You're being a buttface!" Cecelia bit her lip. "This is wrong! It was wrong when you forced everyone to remember before, and it's wrong now! Why don't you get it?"

Emerson reached out a trembling hand. "I was right... it's you... It is you!"

That moment of his hesitation was all I needed. "Taki! The bug net!"

He scooped it up and tossed it to me. I caught it easily, spun it to grip the neck at the net end in both hands, and loosed a battle cry. I rushed past Cecelia, who stumbled back toward the others, and attacked with a ferocity I never knew existed within me. He blocked my first strike, then my second, He dodged backward to avoid a slash down his front, and countered his ax swing at my midsection. I blocked it easily. Taking my opening, I slammed the butt of the tool hard across his face.

The mask fractured.

Joker Mask reeled off his feet and hit the floor with a thud. Bits of the mask broke away, exposing his right eye.

I wrenched the scalpel from his pocket, freeing the small bottle, gripped his shirt in my left fist and lifted him up. I pressed the knife to his throat. I seethed. Hot breath pulsed past my lips. I wanted to harm him like he'd harmed me, to let this tool taste his blood as it tasted mine. I wanted revenge.

He gripped my arm. His ice blue eyes swelled from the same fear he'd inflicted upon me.

"Don't." Cecelia rested her arm on my bicep. "Don't be like him. Please."

Her touch calmed me enough to see past the red shade of rage. Angry, I thrust him back to the ground and grabbed both the ax and the bottle so he could never use them again. I leafed both. "You're right. I'm an athlete." I knocked the rest of the mask from my tormentor's face without touching his skin with the tip of the bug net handle. "Kendo." For the first time, I saw his face, marred with burn welts up his left side. He may have sounded a couple of years older than me, but his appearance put him more in his mid to late 20's.

Mel and Taki gawked at me in a mix of disbelief and caution. They didn't know I was capable of any of that. Until that vision of the street scene, neither did I.

"That was really cool," Taki noted.

"Cool, yes. Move, now!" Cecelia grabbed my hand and yanked me toward the door. I leafed the bug net and pocketed it.

Emerson pushed himself up. "You'll never leave. You'll never get out of Aika Village alive!"

His curse chased our retreat up the angled staircase into the main empty store of Re-Tail and outside. Heavy rains drenched us in seconds.

The storm raged to match the outrage I felt inside. Everything he'd released rushed forward to fight for precedence. The pain from my back and my leg became secondary.

I stumbled out the front door into the torrential rains and clutched my head. Everything surged forward at once; fear, anger, love, disappointment, sorrow. I cried and laughed and screamed and hurt.

"Kenshin," Taki tapped my face to snap me out of it. "Stay with me, pal. Come on, try to stay in control."

"I can't," I sobbed. The sorrow returned, this time mixed with fear. I clutched the lapels of his jacket. "Help me. Make this stop."

"We need to get him some help," Mel pleaded.

"Not here," Cecelia shook her head. "We need to get him to club LOL in Hana Valley. It's the only way."

"How do you know that?" Mel rested her hands on her shoulders.

She shook her head violently back and forth, confused. "I don't know! Like with Emerson. It's just in my head. I don't know!"

"Why Hana Valley?" Mel knew it was close, but stating that was the only place I could get help confused everyone.

"Because he's there. That's where he moved to when he left this village," Cecelia clutched the doll lightly.

"Who?" I managed to ask. I need to focus on anything away from this feeling of being torn apart inside.

She set her gaze on me. Her irises had become significantly darker, almost black from their normal emerald green. "Doctor Shrunk. The real one."

Taki nodded. "Ok." We didn't have time to question it. He supported my weight with his arm across my back, and my arm over his shoulder. "Let's go. The bridge is this way."

I felt my control slipping. We circled the building toward the river to follow that east to the bridge. Thanks to the major storm, the river rushed with bubbling rapids that rose and nearly crested the banks. Swimming across it would be too dangerous.

"You! How did you get out?!"

We froze. I didn't recognize the deep voice, but Taki and Mel did, and their fear knotted through me.

"Oh crap," Taki cursed. "He found us! Run!"

We hurried along the riverbank, but I was slowing them down. Something large and fast raced through the brush straight for us. I glanced to my right.

A shadow taller that myself and three times as wide burst from the trees. Multiple snake-like arms leached out from its body.

Two of them coiled around Taki and snapped him into the air. A jolted cry fell in his wake.

I hit the ground without his support, but Cecelia was there instantly. She clung to me.

"Octavian!" Mel picked up stones and threw them at the giant octopus. "Let him go!"

He batted away the stones and slapped her to the ground with another powerful tentacle. "I told you what would happen if you left that house. You didn't listen. Now I'm the bad guy." Octavian snarled. The octopus turned away and moved back toward the steep cliff. "I'll come back for you."

At the mention of the threat, Taki's eyes shot open wide. He screamed with the level of fear for his life that I had moments before. "No! No! Let me go! Help! Don't! No!"

"Taki!" Mel's cry chased the retreating animal with its prey.

"Mel!" He forced one arm free and reached for her, tears spilling over.

"Give him back! Taki!"She cried out his name into the night. " _TAKI!_ "

\-----------

TBC


	10. Chapter 10: The Ocean Deep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Taki finds a body beneath the waves, and comes far too close to joining it.

**CHAPTER 10: The Ocean Deep**

_This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening…_

My mind locked in an eternal loop of denial and desperation. I struggled against my fleshy binds. They seemed to tighten around my torso no matter how hard I fought. My captor moved swiftly through town, carrying me like a sack of gardening sod. With the way I was situated, all I could see was the path behind me disappearing into the sheets of rain. I reached for it with my free hand, crying. My tears merged with the rain, as if the sky joined in to mourn my fate. I had to get away from Octavian before he could go through with his threat. If I didn’t, that would be it. Game over. End of my story.

“Please,” I begged. “Don’t do this. You’ve proven your point. I get it. You win. You can throw me back in that house and I’ll stay there this time. Giant spider or not.”

Octavian huffed with vague interest. “So, you broke into the library.”

“There were books in weird languages, and a massive tarantula that attacked us.” Mel knew where he was taking me. I figured if I could keep him talking, it might delay the inevitable long enough for my friends to reach me, to save me. …would they even be able to? "You know about it?"

"That tarantula was trained to go after one with a specific smell, but she's not here anymore. The others across the river simply attack any Human that enters their territory." 

“Then why did they attack the animals on the train?”

Octavian's eyes shifted toward me. He ignored my question and adjusted his thick tentacles to get a better grip. "That isn't the shirt you were wearing before. If you changed into clothes from the house, then you brought that arachnid's wrath upon yourself. I have no sympathy for you."

So that's why the tarantula came after me and Mel. That person's scent must still be on these clothes. "Why would someone do that?" I grunted from the increased pressure from the coils constricting around my ribs.

"To force her to control her fear."

"How? In that enclosed space, she'd have nowhere to run. It would bite her."

"Not if she got to the whistle first." He snarled. 

"What whistle?” Octavian didn't answer. My heart skipped in dread as I felt him pick up his pace. I needed more time to distract him. “A-and all the weird books?"

"The doctor wanted to know which ones she could read."

"The doctor... Dr. Shrunk?"

Octavian's arm whipped up in an attempt to cover my mouth. I quickly shielded my face with my hand, succeeding in keeping my mouth clear, but the end of it cupped around my head. “Why would that matter? Everyone speaks and reads Animaleese.”

“It's not your language.” 

My questions derailed. “What do you mean, not...my language? It's the first language I think in. Wouldn't that indicate signs of a native tongue?”

“Could you read anything there?”

I thought back to the letter. “Y-yeah. I don't get it, though. What does that mean?” Why would he raise questions like that if he wasn't willing to answer them? 

"You talk too much." 

Before I'd realized it, Octavian had reached the furthest point out over the high cliff. Angry waves crashed against the flat rock wall. The roaring and pounding of the ocean obliterated all other sounds. Drifts of sea spray blew into my face and hair by a wind that burned my skin. Its force stirred up tumultuous white crests as the howling chorus of the ocean swallowed up the static rain needling the surface. It challenged the thunder above. The ocean became all I saw. I couldn't tell where the stormy sky ended, and the gray sea began.

Panic's cold fire shot through me. I pulled on the deep red tentacles. “No! Don't do this, please! I'm sorry! I'm begging you! Don't! I'll hit the cliff!”

The arms used for his feet curled into the cliff edge for traction. He wrapped two more of his arms around me and raised me over his head. “Not if I throw you far enough.”

“I'll get washed out to sea!” 

“There's a buoy net guard encircling this whole beach –nothing larger than a sea bass can get through.”

“No, you don't understand! I can't sw--!"

He cambered his arms back. “Make it to the beach and remember this lesson, Human; my threats are never idle."

My free hand gripped tightly to the octopus' arm, my knuckles white. "No, wait! Stop! No! NO!"

Octavian launched me with tremendous force over the open water.

I flew and fell. My arms pinwheeled in the air in time to a scream that thrashed my vocal cords. The choppy waters rushed up to meet me, eager to pull me in, drag me down, and never release their hold. They taunted and danced, and lurched up for me. I inhaled one more time. For the last time.

The water exploded around me. All sounds of the storm muffled beneath the surface and plunged me into a cocoon of oscillating silence. I'd hit hard enough that the impact ripped at my nerves. The cold speared through my clothes, skin, muscles, straight to my bones. I managed to hold in my breath long enough to breach the waves. 

A cacophony of sound slammed into my ears. I gasped and flailed for my life, sucking in greedy gulps of air. The sharp crests crashed over my head, forcing salty water into my mouth. I coughed. “Help!” My palms slapped the surface as if I could climb out. Lightning strobed over me, igniting the ocean in hues of cadaver purple. My legs kicked, but my entire body lost all coordination, like the parts of me had forgotten how to speak to each other. “Help!” 

Something dark plum bobbed toward me. It wasn't a shark. No, this was worse. As if things weren't bad enough, I now floundered directly in the path of a jellyfish. It rode the waves like sliding along rippling silk. I try frantically to push myself away, but I can barely keep my head above water. 

I felt its tentacles brush past my ankles. A sharp sting bolted up my legs and in that second, numbness overtook my muscles. My legs no longer worked. I knew a jellyfish's sting was temporary, but that didn't matter right now. It robbed me of the sparse hope I clung to. 

The cliff face was the last thing I saw as a current pulled me under. The world above disappeared, distorted by the indigo ocean. I clawed uselessly through the water, holding my breath. My eyes were wide open, but I didn't care. I reached, pumping my arms to try to break the line between life and death again. Despite my efforts, I only sank further into the darkness. 

My lungs began to burn. The urge to inhale strengthened after every passing millisecond, but I kept my mouth shut. Feeling returned to my legs. I worked my limbs hard, but the motions sent me deeper. The flickering lightning grew further away.

My foot brushed against something that felt like rock. Solid ground! I could push myself up back to the surface. With new hope, I pressed my feet against the rock and pushed... 

My right foot slipped between a crack. 

It stuck. I was trapped under the water and running out of air. Fresh terror hammered against my chest with each pounding of my pulse, which hurt more and more as my lungs constricted and my muscles contracted to squeeze any oxygen left into my blood. I yanked and pulled at my foot, thrashing and struggling to free myself. The painful pressure in my chest spread to the rest of me. My head hurt, my throat hurt, my chest felt like it would explode. 

Shreds of crimson fabric drifted near my foot in the current like bloody seaweed gnarled around a long, straight, bleached stick. Attached to it were five smaller sticks jammed into the boulder on the sea floor. It connected to something larger half buried in sediment. 

My attempts to free my foot ended up freeing the stick instead. 

But it wasn't a stick.

A skeleton, blanched from salt corrosion, and picked clean by small fish pulled up out of the floor. Puffs of sand curled away into the water. Two black, hollow spheres stared at me above an open jaw. Its other hand clutched a bottle in its fist against its chest. 

I screamed. The last of my precious air bubbled upward to freedom. The last of my breath, stolen by the ocean. 

I was out of time. I thrashed to get away from the bones and from death with no more mind than an insect. Spots speckled my vision, leaking in like razor shavings across my brain in asphyxia.

And then I sealed my fate. My body gave in against my will, and I inhaled. Cold water poured into me. I gasped to no avail. Air... I needed air. 

The water refused my desperation. I stopped struggling. My arms and legs went limp as the oxygen deprivation erased my thoughts. 

A shadowed figure approached me quickly from the darkness, wrenched my foot free, and pulled me up to the surface. I remained conscious enough to see it was another human. But they were too late.

My heart stopped.

Seconds passed, or minutes. I couldn't tell, but I couldn't move, or feel my body anymore. Thank God. 

The lilt of an unfamiliar voice brushed through my mind. 

_I want to go back to zero._

\--

_I found myself on that city rooftop as before. A girl with medium cut brown hair dressed in red faced me at the railing edge overlooking the brilliant city filled with humans. She stood no higher than my chin, but she looked to be around my age. She clutched the same doll Cecelia guarded in her arms._

_“I want to go back to zero,” she pleaded, though her lips didn't move. “Please.”_

_“Who are you?”_

_“I can't leave until he returns to zero, or everyone will suffer. Give it to him. Free my hatter. Free me. I want to go back to zero.”_

_“I don't understand. Give him what—” I paused, suddenly remembering the details in the library. “...The letter on the desk...”_

_“Take it. Help me.” Her right arm raised like it was made of lead and lifted by a string. “Wake up, Taki.” Her index finger extended. “Now.”_

_A hard jab of pressure impacted my chest near my heart, followed by another, then another. I buckled and dropped to my knees, clawing my fingers into my sternum. It hurt...It hurt so much, I wanted to throw up. So I did. My stomach turned in on itself._

_The scene faded to black._

\--

I wretched, coughing and sputtering as I threw up great globs of sea water and bile onto the sand. Someone rolled me onto my side. Fresh, cool oxygen filled my lungs, sending shooting pains through my limbs, but I couldn't care less. This was air, beautiful, delicious air. I flopped to my back and sucked in deep, fast breathes. 

“Taki,” Mel gasped. “Oh my god, you're alive! Just breathe. Steady breathes. Come on, stay with me.” 

My mind spun from the rush of nutrients that made me dizzy and only capable of one instinctive act: breathing. The frantic flutter of my heart raced behind my ribs like a frightened caged sparrow. Gradually, my vision returned. 

I was on dry land... and I was alive.

She cupped my face in her hands. They were warm. I wanted that warmth to soak through me to tear away the fear of dying, the chill of the ocean, and the trauma sheathing me in a thin film. I calmed down.

“Are you ok? Say something.”

I wanted to, but my voice wouldn't work. It felt raw, scratched, and I wouldn't have been surprised if it was bleeding. 

Instead, I reached up and gripped her hand. 

She smiled. “Don't ever do that again, you idiot,” she sniffled. “Why didn't you tell anyone you can't swim?”

“It,” I coughed. My voice sounded like it was rubbing against sand paper, “doesn't come up.” 

Her voice quivered around the tension she could finally release. “We'll have to fix that.”  
At that moment, I felt Kenshin's strong arms pull me up to a sitting position as he hugged me tightly. I blinked. 

“You're ok!” He sobbed. “I'm so happy!” 

This person who had just shown tremendous skill and precision with the handle of a bug net again our enemy now clung to me like he was Cecelia, and I was her doll in the red dress. I still didn't have full control over my body yet, so I felt like a soggy wad of laundry --one stung by a jellyfish. My nerves slowly registered the sting. Ow... that would leave a mark.

Finally, he let me go. I managed to stay sitting up, but breathing deeply was out of the question. 

Kenshin's expression shifted from pure joy to sorrow, and he dropped to hug his knees in the circle of his arms. “I was almost too late.” He suddenly slammed his fist against the sand. “I'm going to rip that octopus' arms off!”

“Calm down,” Cecelia settled next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Go back to 'love' and think about that one, ok? It's a happy feeling.” 

The cliff face down the beach from us was empty. Octavian was gone. I coughed again, cringing from the ache. I was soaking wet and now speckled with a fine layer of sand grains. “How did I get here?”

“Kenshin pulled you out of the water,” Mel explained. 

“He was amazing! You should have seen it!” Cecelia chimed in.

I watched the blubbering mess that was our friend take deep breathes to focus on one emotion. He failed and broke down into sobs again, clenched his fists into the sand, then pulled at his hair. “How? Isn’t he still emotionally rekt?”

Mel pushed her newly-short hair away from her face. “He focused on 'love' long enough to save you. He jumped in without even thinking twice.”

Cecelia hugged the doll. “So that’s why you didn’t go in after your golden fishing rod. You’re not afraid of sharks, are you.”

I rubbed my chest. It still felt like there was water in there. “Sorry to disappoint.” My eyes lingered on the toy in her arms, dressed the same way as the girl in my vision, and the skeleton deep beneath the ocean. “I heard someone... that voice from earlier that said 'get away,'” I sent my validation of sanity to Mel, who remained serious, but accepting. I knew she'd heard that voice at the cemetery, too. “She said she wanted to return to zero and and to give something to her 'hatter', or everyone would suffer.” I hacked up more water and spit it out. “Mel, do you remember the letter on the desk? What it said?” 

She nodded. “Green releases what's trapped. Blue reveals the unreachable path –or something like that, and 'Red returns you to zero,'” she quoted.

Kenshin removed a leaf from his pocket with a shaky hand and held it out. He couldn't summon enough mental strength to change it back and keep his rampant emotions in check, so Cecelia did it for him. 

She held the small medicine bottle in one hand. “Well, this is red. Where'd you get this?”

He rubbed at his arms, stood, and started pacing. “I heard someone say 'take it.' I just reacted I never just 'react.' It's not like me. I think things through. I can keep a cool head in any situation. I... It's.. none of this is... It's... Aaahhhh!” He gripped his head. “Focus, focus, gotta focus.” 

Cecelia swished the liquid around. “Is this part of that weird riddle?”

Mel and I stared at it. “Wait...there was green stuff in the water, and all of us except Cecelia were affected.” She unleafed the blue bottle from her pocket. “This has to be part of it. If the red stuff makes you forget, then blue would...” An answer failed to find her. None of us had a clue as to this its purpose. Mel's lips formed a thin line. 

That's the conclusion I came to as well. I looked back at the ocean that came too close to claiming my life. Shivers prickled my skin. "There's someone's body down there. I think," I paused to catch my breath, which only added to the anticipation, "I think it's Alice."

Mel's mouth gaped in shock. "Alice?" I wasn't sure her reaction was more due to the fact that I'd found human remains, or that I somehow knew who they belonged to. "No way. That means she--”

My head bobbled lightly. My vision blurred from a wave of vertigo. She caught me from falling over. My heart spasmed in abnormal rhythm.

Cecelia bit her lip hard enough to turn the skin around her teeth white.

“Well, look what washed up on the beach, guys.” 

Mel, Kenshin, Cecelia, and I all instantly shifted our attentions to the new threat. 

Emerson strode down the path to the beach. Except this time, he wasn't alone. Sarah trailed him in a fit of barely restrained, sporadic giggles. 

Another man slightly younger than himself, sulked at the rear and carried a small fat gyroid in his arms. He mumbled incoherently beneath patches of slicked down blond hair. Small bald spots speckled his scalp –a testament to wads he'd pulled out by the roots. The exposed skin was covered in blood-sploched bandages from self-inflicted wounds. This 'brain-fried shut-in' he'd mentioned earlier was the only other human in this town we hadn't seen –the other victim of Emerson's experiments: John.

The joker mask was gone, completely exposing the burns lacing up the left side of his face into his jagged bangs. His pale blue eyes seemed to radiate their own wicked intensity. He feared nothing. Not the storm, not the insanity of Sarah, and not us. John swayed slightly side to side, refusing to make eye contact. 

He stopped about ten feet away and regarded us with a hateful glare at the head of his deranged entourage. “A Treasure, a Tool, and two pieces of Trash.”

\--------------- 

TBC


	11. Chapter 11: Alice's Hatter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Emerson answers questions, but won't take 'no' for an answer. Mother nature intervenes.

**CHAPTER 11: Alice's Hatter**

A prickly ball of dread dropped into my stomach. Somehow, the orchestrator of our torment had found us. We were open, injured, and vulnerable. “Emerson,” I whispered. His name tasted like a bitter curse on my lips. 

He hummed in a pensive manner as he studied me. “You were cuter with long hair, Mel. I'm sorry I cut it off. You have to admit, it did gain a perfect reaction from Kenshin. He sincerely thought I would take that ax to your neck.”

The sight of his scarred face revived the sound of the golden ax slicing through my hair in jagged, uneven chunks. I pulled impulsively on wet, matted strands near my face and looked over at Kenshin. He had become a statue, frozen with his unblinking gaze lasered in on their leader, the harbinger of his personal hell. The only sign of motion was the trembling of his tightly clenched fist. I didn't know if he was holding back from exploding in outrage, or not moving to keep himself from succumbing to fear.

Either way, if not checked, both would launch him straight to the extreme ends of the spectrum. 

Emerson's sights set on Cecelia. "You weren't supposed to run away this time," then moved to Kenshin, "And I am not through with you, yet." 

“Get away from us!” The sharp command left me before I could stop it. 

“You know, you laughed at an inappropriate time back there. Laughter feels amazing, doesn't it? How many of your emotions are you suffering without, Mel? Were you as fog-blank as him?” 

I scrambled over to grab a comb seashell and held it out as a pathetic weapon. “I said stay away!”

“How did you find us?” Kenshin forced the words through the emotions he was forcibly holding back.

“It was easy. I just listened for the screams of a pathetic loser and followed that.” Emerson stepped forward, forcing the four of us to back away. His eyes locked on Taki pushing himself backward through the sand, and he snorted. “Can’t swim, can you.”

“What do you care?” Taki snarled. He tried to stand, but the combination of the jellyfish sting and the trauma of drowning sent him back to the sand.

He shrugged. “It's rare that a human can't even tread water, that's all. Tch. You really are a loser.”

“Kitten boy, kitten boy,” Sarah mocked, “Drowning in the sea. Forever breathing water, never to be free.” She drew the last syllable out like sucking in her own final breath. “Some were not so lucky.”

“But you made it out alive.” Emerson interrupted in a gruff curse. His head slowly turned back toward us with the snarling teeth of a predator puffing rage into his chest. “You cheated! You lowly piece of garbage! How did you survive?! How?!”

“Kenshin saved him!” Cecelia yelled back. “Even after what you did to him, he’s still braver than you’ll ever be!”

“Impossible. With the emotions I've already freed wreaking havoc in his mind, it's a miracle he can function without guidance.”

“It's because they're friends,” Cecelia continued to fight for her companions. “That's what friends do. They're there for each other. You unlocked his emotion of 'love' and that's what he held on to. It's more powerful than fear or anger! That's something you've never understood, Emerson!” 

“I understand it more than you realize!” He jabbed his finger at the sea. “That should be him out there at the bottom of the ocean instead of her! He does not have the right to survive!”

“He didn't!” She screamed into the storm. The salt of the marine air mixed with tears streaking down her face. “Taki didn't make it!”

I stared at the small girl in her rain-soaked purple dress in disbelief.

The words gushed out of her on their own, breaking the meager dam of her restraint. “His lips turned blue. He wasn't breathing. It felt like someone turned on a big fan of cold air in my face and then threw a beehive my head. I got really light headed for a while, and then the feeling was gone, and he was ok.” She sniffled and rubbed her bare arm across her eyes. “He was terrified and I felt it. Sensing what someone else is feeling that strongly is impossible. We can only create brief empathic bonds at random, and we have to be close by.”

I struggled to bring logic into her explanation. “Um... We didn't know.”

“We can do what? Since when?!” Kenshin's features shifted from fear to shock –another unbridled emotion. 

“I'm sorry,” she apologized. “It scared me. I don't know how I know what I felt, but I do.”

What she described resonated within me. I'd felt the same standing in the surf as Kenshin charged in—wounds and all—to save him. My eyes drifted to Taki sitting wide-eyed on the ground with his arm across his sore rib cage and staring at our small companion. Maybe he lashed out in a desperate attempt for help and we were close enough to feel it.

Taki's expression matched the shock that I felt. “Scared you? You just...said...I died.” He swallowed hard and grimaced. 

Kenshin stumbled backwards, kicking up clumps of sand from his heels and clamped his hands to his head.  

“Hm?” Emerson said above Sarah's chortles of glee at Kenshin's response. “Oh. I guess he's never heard that word before. The freed emotions are making his reaction worse than usual. Interesting. You're being a wonderful friend by letting him hear a lost word in his current condition.”

“Oh no,” Cecelia wanted to wrap her arms around her friend, but her fists refused to release the doll or the bottle. “Kenshin, I'm sorry. hold on.”

Emerson's head tilted slightly as he mockingly delivered his suggestion. “Why don't you comfort him from whatever he's remembering? What's stopping you?”

Her arms loosened, but tightened again. She shook her head. “I...” 

I dropped the shell and quickly placed myself in his line of sight, to bring him back as Taki had done for me. “Kenshin, stay with me, ok?” Its effect plunged him into an unknown memory that robbed him of his voice. “I'm right here.”

That's when I saw it...his silver irises held a constant, slight blue illumination. Something was happening within him that I couldn't stop or understand. 

His hand clamped over my arm. “Mel...”

I glared back at Emerson, wanting nothing more than to ram my fist into his jaw for continuing to torture one of my family. “Stop it,” my voice trembled audibly. “Just stop it!”

“The trash will shut up, now,” he waved me off with the abandon of shooing away a fly.

“She is not...trash,” Taki rasped. He got to his feet, wobbled, and faced down our threat. “And good luck...getting her...to listen.”

He was protecting me, but insulting me at the same time. I didn't know if I should appreciate that, or kick him.

Emerson and his gang moved forward again. “The only interest I have in you is finding a way to make you pay for destroying my equipment. Your first death wasn't by my design, so thanks for giving me a second chance.”

With a gesture of his right hand, Sarah stepped up beside him. He withdrew a gold leaf from his smock front pocket and handed it to her. “Take care of the garbage for me, will you?”

She unleafed it in pure greed, rolling the tool in her palms like a wad of dough. “Finally...finally...all mine.” Her long hair hung in thick strands over her face like dead worms, but did nothing to conceal her too-wide toothy grin above dark soulless orbs.

My eyes widened at the slingshot as she picked up a pebble and placed it in the leather sling. The rubber bands pulled taught as she took aim at his forehead.

“No!” Cecelia quickly put herself between Taki and Sarah and spread her arms to the sides. That was her item taken away at the lab. There was no way she'd let anything that belonged to her harm any of her friends. “If you shoot, you'll have to go through me!"

Emerson pushed Sarah's hand down. “Stop. You'll hit her.”

“Don't touch me!” Sarah shrieked. "I can aim this thing just fine."

He gripped her wrist. “If one hair on her head is harmed, my promise to you goes up in smoke. Do you understand me?”

Sarah leaned forward into his face. “Those pitfall seeds are mine, Emerson. Every last one you dug up in this town belongs to me.”

“Do. As I. Say.” His grip tightened in emphasis to his anger, then softened up with a small smirk faking standard etiquette. “Please.”

She scowled, jerked her hand away from him and grudgingly lowered the slingshot. 

Finished with her, he reached out toward Cecelia with a welcoming palm up and moved closer. “Come with me. Leave these idiots behind.” 

She, however, stayed her ground. “These idiots are my friends. If you think I'm going to let you get away with hurting them or anyone else, you're on another planet.”

“Your place is with me. It always has been. Please,” he spared her a saccharine smile as if it were common knowledge to all. He sent as much earnest need into his delivery as he could. “Be my Alice again.” 

“Your Alice...?” Cecelia whispered. Her shoulders stiffened. 

Taki rested his hand on her as he stepped around her in part to stabilize himself, and to show his support. “The one...you're talking about...is out there,” he pointed at the ocean. “I'm sorry she didn't make it, but stop...projecting your fantasies... onto Cecelia.” He caught his breath, still unable to expand his rib cage much. “She is not Alice.”

“Your wrong,” Emerson conceded. “And her real name isn't Alice.” 

“Then who wrote that letter in the weird language?” I asked.

“Letter?” His next phrase slipped out like I'd violated a sacred sanctuary. “You've been in her library.” His eyes narrowed. “Could you read it?”

I said nothing, but my silence gave away the truth. 

“It was one of two she could read. Her favorite book was in that strange writing.” A fond reminiscence bled into a chuckle as he, Sarah, and John continued to push us backward up the beach. “She always did have an unusual fascination with that story. She called this town her Wonderland. She even labeled me as the 'Mad Hatter.' The doctor didn't understand why she chose to bond with me, but he used that along with his gyroids to help her adjust.” He pressed his palm over his heart--as if a non-existent thing could ache. “I gladly took on that mantle if it meant freeing her.” 

My gaze skated from the squat brown gyroid in John's arms –its stubby appendages at a resting position—then back. “Using those things wasn't your idea?”

“Dr. Shrunk discovered the divergent sine waves emitted by gyroids and developed them to isolate one emotion at a time. I was the one who created Synchronial Engagement –freeing all emotions back to back, or all at once. I was an acoustical engineer, top of my class at the city university, but the moment I suggested pursuing my research to the Dean, that fat Tanuki had me expelled on unfounded 'disciplinary issues.'” Translate that to 'I wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.'” 

He picked up a stray clam shell. “Dr. Shrunk convinced him to let me stay on as his research assistant in order to keep an eye on me. I was better than any human or animal in that institution, yet I was labeled as dangerous and demoted to coffee runs and system maintenance,” he spat the title like he'd swallowed an insect. “My involvement in the doctor's work was a footnote on his research paper. I wouldn't be surprised if he removed me entirely after he left to take all the credit for himself. Most of that slimy amphibian's ideas were mine, but humans are still considered second class citizens.”

“We're not second class,” I argued. “We live and work symbiotically with the animals –we always have. We're just as important to this society as any squirrel, cat, or bird.”  

“Wrong, wrong, wrong! So very wrong!” He snapped the clam shell in half and thrust both halves into the sand. “You brainwashed, naïve little brat! We aren't equals! We never were! We're rescues! Pulled from a fate worse than death inside the void! 

“What are you talking about?” Taki's strength returned enough for him to stand on his own power. “What 'void.'”

Emerson sighed out his rage. “'Tch,' Why bother explaining it to you morons? You're too stupid to understand.” He bent to pick up one half of the shell and dusted it off. “But you,” he ignored us in favor of the redhead again, “you know what I'm talking about, don't you? You've seen it.” His ice-blue snake eyes stayed on the smallest of our group and purred his next phrase. “Isn’t that right...Aika?”

Cecelia's eyes widened behind her doll. 

Kenshin blinked at her like she'd grown a second head. “Aika? That's...That's Alice's real name? And you think Cecelia is her?” The wild fear lashed through him as he took a step away from her. “You're two people?!”

“I'm not two anything!”

“Aika—“ Emerson barely got the name out.

“I am not Aika!” She stomped her foot. “I'm Mayor Cecelia of Sugarpine, and you're a delusional psychopath! There is something seriously screw-loosey with you!”

“You stupid, stubborn girl. How else do you explain that you know so much about me and this town, and that you felt that little scab's last heart beat?! You refuse to let go of that Doll! It belonged to her, yet you clutch it like it holds your life! It's the one personal possession of hers the animals didn't bury!” 

The air hitched in her throat as she forced her fingers to loosen just to prove him wrong. She failed.

“Let me prove it to you.” He motioned John to step forward with the gyroid.

She yelled her command as if the words held enough force to push him clear to the other end of the beach. "Your equipment is toast. You can't hurt Kenshin anymore, so just go away and leave us alone!"

He smiled --a sight I never wanted to see, but one that would haunt my nightmares forever. "It's true that that little urine stain put a huge kink in my plans, but he didn't destroy them."

He smoothly withdrew a palm-sized remote from the pocket of his dingy smock. Its single short antenna stabbed into the air. “I perfected the treatment over the last eight years through failures and sacrifices of those sentenced to this town. All so your body wouldn't lie at the bottom of the ocean for nothing.” 

“Sacrifices? The people you used for your experiments didn't survive?” My voice quivered at the pure audacity of his negligence and blithe disregard for life.

“Not all. John's still here. It's because of his natural ability to control who he can form an empathic link to that I was sure he would be my successful variable. His mind might be fried, but he's still alive. Well, I call that a victory.”

“You're a monster.” I tightened my grip on the bottle of azure liquid still concealed in my hand. “What about Aika?” Kenshin's anger surged through him. “She couldn't handle your torture, so she jumped? And you didn't go in after her?" He clenched his teeth. 

Emerson turned his phantom-blue gaze to the wild sea. He ignored the driving wind and rain pulling their fingers through his jagged hair like he was above its influence. "I did go in after her," he lamented. "I felt her death the same way that girl felt his. But I was too late. Despite that link, I couldn't find her.” 

Stunned, Cecelia looked down at her left hand around the small bottle close to her heart. The blood-red liquid sloshed harmlessly within. Her expression spoke volumes to everyone present: she was struggling against something else fighting her will. She managed to make her fingers uncurl around the bottle. A flash of lightning glinted off the surface illuminating the opaque contents within. 

Emerson noticed it beyond his blinded single-mindedness, and he gaped in disbelief. “That bottle...” He frantically examined the both of us, zeroing in on the items in our grasp. “I don't believe it. You found both of them?” The manic fire in his eyes returned. “Give them to me.” 

The deep rumble of the river's waterfall grew behind us to meld with the storm. He was driving us into a corner, trapping us between sea and rock. We had nowhere to run. 

Whatever chemicals this blue liquid contained were worth enough to him to bring a posse of broken humans as back up to obtain it. Emerson wanted this for something involving his experiments. No one should go through what Kenshin struggled with now. Something urged me to hold onto it. Whatever happened, Emerson could not get his hands on this or the red one.

I leafed the bottle and shoved it back into my pocket. Cecelia did the same with hers. 

“Fine. We'll do this my way.” His thumb pressed down on the remote's center button. 

The gyroid's arms pivoted to the activation command and it let out a dissonant 'bong'. Though it tilted lazily from size to side, its motion didn't seem to bother John at all. 

A heart beat pulse of dizziness punched my equilibrium. The sound waves pulsed within my mind like sonar searching for hidden treasure. Kenshin suffered from the same reaction. Its intensity slammed into us hard enough to force us to the ground. I stumbled forward and dropped to my hands and knees as every emotion I'd yet to discover burst through me like a nova. I felt it all at once; love, mischief, sorrow, pride, realization, and heartache. It was too much. I couldn't control it, and I felt like my body couldn't contain it. Tears stung my eyes even though I vomited up wild laughter. 

Kenshin laughed hard, cried, leaned up on his knees in pride, then pressed his forehead to the sand. 

_Help_ , I screamed in my head too loudly, but the word wrapped around a sorrow-filled sob. _Make it stop. Please!_

He patted the gyroid on its flat head at the base of its antenna. “Enjoying the experience of full synchronial engagement? Every single emotion you are capable of feeling is now awakened. I wouldn't want to be in your heads right now. It's probably a knotted ball of misery.” 

Cecelia wrapped her arm around Kenshin's bicep. “Kenshin, calm down.” She rested her head on his shoulder. His hyperventilation slowed. She didn't know why her touched settled him –like it had before at Re-Tail—, but at this point, she wasn't going to question it. “Ok! She cried. “I'll give you the red stuff, just please, shut it off. Stop it, Emerson.” Her voice quivered in acquiescence. “You win. Just please stop hurting my friends.” 

He pushed the button and the gyroid settled back to 'inactive.' 

I relaxed, breathing hard, but the cacophony of emotions boiled through me. 

“The damage is done, Aika, but I appreciate your valor.” He held his hand out. “Get the blue potion from Mel and let's go home.”

“Cecelia,” I struggled through clenched teeth. “Don't.”

Emerson freed his waif-like companion her previous order. “Now, you may get rid of the trash.”

Sarah eagerly loaded the slingshot, took greedy aim between my eyes and fired—. 

**KRA-KOW!**

A bolt of lightning struck the sand between us with crackling, blinding incandescence, turning night to stark bleached day. It instantaneously melted the sand into roots of glass that spidered out in a second. Sarah's rock evaporated inside the strike.

The sonic boom hammered into my chest, knocked me back, and washed over me. Grains of sand scraped against my skin. Pain shot through my nerves and my right arm. The air smelled of burnt ozone.

And then everything went black.

I don't know how long I was out –seconds, minutes? I slowly became aware of the spastic beating of my heart straining to tear free from my body. 

A solid tinnitus rapidly replaced all sound in my ears. 

The dirty grit kicked up into my mouth. I spat it out and gasped to recover. My arms quivered as I pushed myself up to my hands and knees. My fingers curled into the sand, locking the ligaments into white-knuckled claws. The remaining emotions Emerson had forced alive were crushed beneath confusion and fear.

Cecelia staggered, and dropped to all fours. Taki and Kenshin had crumpled from the blast and were trying to get up. The lightning bolt left all of us disoriented.

I struggled to move. The residual energy from the lightning tingled along my nerves even as trauma fatigue set in. My vision blurred. If I could get to my feet, I could find my friends and—

A second thread of electricity sliced through a large old oak tree perched at the edge of the cliff straight down through the muddy soil. Shrapnel exploded outward from superheated sap as the tree split in half. It groaned and snapped, unwillingly pulled away from its twin to tumble over the edge. Rocks loosed from roots tearing out of the earth peppered the ground. All of it plunged straight for us in a deadly projectile of flames spears.

Taki grabbed my shoulders and yanked me out of the way. The four of us fell next to the inlet from the river fall to the ocean barely in time.

The thick oak's loud impact sent glowing embers and sand spewing into the air. 

Half of a massive tree now created a barrier of broken gnarled branches and fire that separated us and them.

Taki looked behind him, said something to Cecelia that I couldn't see, and grabbed my right hand.

I screamed as pain lanced up my limb.

He let go in shock, then pulled up the edge of my sleeve. His eyes widened. I saw him turn that worry to me. He said nothing, but pushed my sleeve back down and wrapped his arm around my waist instead. I stumbled drunkenly to my feet and let him lead me toward the nearby falls. I nearly fell from vertigo. My balance was off, and my right arm started to burn.

Cecelia stumbled through the side veil of water out of sight and collapsed.

I trusted him and closed my eyes as powerful water gushed just to my left. He lead me into a cave behind the waterfall and carefully let me settle to the moist ground. I couldn't hear the roar of the falls over the ringing in my ears, or my own breath, though I could feel the air entering and leaving my lungs. 

Taki paused when Kenshin came to a sudden halt. “What are you doing? Come on!”

Kenshin dug the scalpel from his pocket and unleafed it. He raised it, ready to vault over the burning tree with a battle cry when Taki caught his arm and swiftly wrenched the weapon free.

“No!” He threw it hard over the water. The wind screamed in high pitched whistles as it sliced through the air and disappeared beneath the waves.

“Are you nuts?!” Kenshin turned on him. "Now's our chance!"

“We are not like them!” Taki pushed. “Don't give Fang a real reason to keep us here.”

Kenshin glared across the expanse past the flickering orange flames devouring the tree to Emerson's gang slowly getting to their feet.

“Let's go!”

He tore himself away from the heated rage and followed his friend into the waterfall.

I cradled my right arm. Curiosity crept through strongly enough that I gave in and shakily pulled up my sleeve. My arm was burned. Red lines branched out in a fern-like pattern down my forearm and over my hand as if my skin held the bolt of lightning itself. I could hardly move my fingers. It hurt.

Cecelia cried as the boys joined us in our hiding place. Kenshin leaned against the wall next to me, clenching his teeth, and breathing hard. I looked to Taki next. He'd slouched against the other wall next to Cecelia with his hand over his chest, panting in quick breathes. The lightning had twisted our insides like ropes and left them in knots. We were shaken, wounded, and scared.

“That was way too close,” Taki let himself finally register what happened. He thanked an unseen being that he'd made the decision to pick up his lucky item today. Maybe he wouldn't get rid of this jacket after all. “Holy crap. H-how are we still alive?” 

Kenshin turned deep, animated concern toward me and said something I couldn't make out. His motions became more jolted as he slid to his butt and pulled his knees up to his chest.

“What?” Nothing came out, but I felt the air go past my vocal chords. My mind was still fuzzy and that ringing in my ears wouldn't give it a rest.

Taki let himself drop to his knees next to me and rested his hand in concern over my left shoulder. “You were closest to the lightning. Are you ok? Mel?”

My eyes darted to each of them, to the waterfall, and back again. The iambic tempo of my pulse thrummed through my head. I felt its pressure more than I heard it. He spoke, but I only saw his lips move. “Taki?” Terror gripped me. My mouth formed silent words. “I can't hear your voice.” I cried. “I can't hear anything!”

* * * *

Sarah, Emerson, and John stared past the burning oak obstacle. John caringly crouched to pick up the gyroid and brushed it off. He mumbled to it like soothing a frightened pet.

“Let's flush them out,” Sarah snarled. “I'll drown those kittens once and for all.”

“No. Leave them alone.” Emerson's hand clamped protectively over the scarring pattern on the left side of his face branching its roots down his neck to hide beneath his shirt. He held back the adrenaline trembling his muscles in memory of the past. “That girl needs to come to me on her own. She's close to realizing who she is.”

“What about the Reset Center?” John slurred. 

“The tunnel entrance collapsed years ago. There's only one way back to town, now. Until that tree stops burning, they're trapped in that cave.” He peered through the flames and the waterfall to the hidden figures beyond. He was the cat waiting for his chance to pounce. “We have all the time in the world to wait them out.” 

“I guess I'll go grab some snacks,” Sarah leafed the slingshot and stuffed it into her pants pocket as if they hadn't been mere yards from a deadly lightning strike. “I'm kind of hungry anyway.”

Emerson's finger pads gently brushed over his lichtenberg scar. Being so close to lightning once again finally registered through his body. “Aika.”

“Come back to me.”

\--------------- 

TBC


	12. Lifeline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mel and Kenshin are caught in the maelstrom of wild emotions. Taki and Cecelia use a gift humans don't think twice about to save the sanity of their friends.

**CHAPTER 12: Lifeline**

Her fingernails clawed into my arm. “I can't hear! I can't hear! I can't hear!” Each hyperventilated repetition burst with her desperate begging of 'help me!' She didn't blink. She stared right at me, or through me, searching in futility for her precious sense of sound. Her lips curled up in a smile, then contorted in sorrow, then to confusion, and she clamped her hands over her ears. “It hurts!”

“Calm down.” I took her right hand in mine automatically. “It'll return. Just please—“

She yanked her hand away in a cry of pain, and scooted back, cradling her arm protectively to her chest. The emotion in her round eyes changed from confusion to fear. Fear of me.

I'd only known Mel for one day, but knew I never wanted to see that look directed at me ever again. 

Kenshin's right fist shot into my face faster than I could inhale. I hit my side against the dirt as pain jolted through my jaw and up into my head. It fogged out my vision and my world spun. For a moment, I couldn't tell which way was up. “Ah! Kenshin, what the hell?!”

“Stay away from her!” He'd put himself between us as a wall and shot me the death-glare of a furious athlete. “I don't care if you did die. If you hurt her again, I will break your arm!”

Having seen what he could do with the handle of a bug net substituted as a sword, I believed him. Kenshin stood taller than me by a couple of inches, but at that moment, he became a mountain. I saw hatred in his eyes where I had only ever seen calm. “I didn't hurt her! I—“ My focus moved past him to the shivering ball of green shirt, blue jeans, and blue sneakers cowering near a boulder. Mel's short hair fell past her face. That's when I noticed her right arm. I'd inadvertently grabbed her wounded hand. “The lightning mark... I didn't mean to. Mel, I'm sorry.”

“Back off!” Kenshin closed the distance toward me. His feet slid along the ground, creating piles of dirt around his shoes.

I scrambled back as my heart pounded in my already sore chest. If his back and leg wounds caused him pain, the rage boiling over inside him overpowered it. “H-hold on. Wait a minute!”

He gripped my jacket lapels in his left fist and raised his right.

“What's wrong with you?! Snap out of it!”

My panicked voice breezed around him unheeded. He needed a target, and I'd accidentally volunteered to be a punching bag. Nothing else mattered in his distorted world. In the next second, my face would become hamburger. Everything I'd gone through in this town raked through my nerves and crippled my reaction times despite the adrenaline pumping through my bloodstream. I gripped his hand, knowing I couldn't fight in my condition. I could barely breathe let alone take on a guy fueled by rage. “This isn't like you! Stop!”

“You don't know anything about me! So just shut up!”

I scrunched my eyes shut waiting for the inevitable...but nothing happened. Kenshin's grip loosened on my jacket and the fabric slipped from his fingers. My weight dropped to the ground. I cracked open on eye to see why I wasn't experiencing a crazed beat down, and saw the back of Cecelia's long red hair. She'd wrapped her arms around him.

I watched, confused, as the poker-hot rage creasing his face softened and he crumpled to his knees. “C-Cecelia?”

“He can't snap out of it, you idiot!” She yelled into his shirt. “It's his emotions from the gyroids. He has no control anymore. He and Mel—they're broken!” Her head turned enough to catch me in her peripheral. “You're cruel for forgetting that, Taki. That's seriously mean!”

Kenshin settled down considerably. He slowly looked down at the little girl clinging to him with all of her life, and blinked once, as if waking from a dream. 

“The gyroids...right.. I didn't think. Sorry.” I looked him in the eye, “Are you...ok now?” I asked, like someone approaching a bear.

He nodded. “Yeah.”

I chuckled nervously. “I thought you were really going to break my arm.”

“I was,” he said.

That did not make me feel better. “You don't have to agree so quickly.” My suspicion stayed, not trusting that he wouldn't go for the jugular again. “Why'd you suddenly go back to sorta-normal anyway?”

“I don't know.” He regarded the small mayor with curiosity. “Cecelia?”

Cecelia lowered to her knees, but kept his arm tightly in the circle of her own. The doll dangled from her right hand. “I didn't want Kenshin to hurt you. He's a good guy, caring, and smart. Whatever's going on in his head is not him. If I can stop that, then I will.”

“Like John,” I recounted. “Emerson said he was most likely to survive the experiments because he could chose who to link to.” I rubbed my eyes with my sleeve. “I don't get this at all. I've been mayor for four years. I've lived in Leafside for five, and I lived inland before that, and no one ever said anything about this. This is kind of an important detail to know.”

“Luna said we shouldn't,” Cecelia studied Kenshin's captive right hand and forced her words out like recounting a forbidden truth. “She only told me about it because I noticed I could feel one of my bunny villager's sadness over losing a fishing tournament. They weren't even looking at me. No one else was around, and right before then I'd been really happy that I'd won. I knew I wasn't just feeling bad for her, though, because it felt like I was the one who lost the tournament. It didn't make sense. So, the next time I went to the Dream Suite to take a nap, I told Luna about it. She explained it a little, then told me to talk to Katrina next time she was in town if it happened again. I waited a month for her to come back. It happened a few times before then, but those were light and very short –like a minute.”

“What did Katrina say?” Kenshin asked.

Cecelia took a deep breath. “She told me to picture it like a thread whipping out from you to 'plug into' someone nearby at random for a moment, then return. She said with Humans, it happens all the time. Most Animals can't do that, and humans don't pay attention.”

“Like how lightning looks for a lead from the ground.” Using that analogy right now seemed morbidly fitting. “So, Humans find random 'leads,' connect with one, then let go?”

“Don't mention lightning. That scared the bells outta me.” She hid her face in Kenshin's sleeve.

“Why would Luna say we shouldn't know? If this is a gift we have, shouldn't we be aware of it?”

“Because she said if we knew, it would alter the way we lived, that we'd always be wondering if we what we felt belonged to us or not. People might avoid other people completely just to keep it from happening.” her shoulders slumped in sadness. “That's a lonely way to live.”

My mind glazed over in thought. “Maybe you can do what John can do.”

“No, I can't! If I knew I could, I'd know!” Cecelia argued.

Kenshin spoke to her like she was the only person in the cave. “Maybe Aika could.”

“Shut up!” She hit him in the side, making him flinch. “I am not Aika!”

“You know a lot of stuff that you shouldn't about this town,” I defended Kenshin's point. “Explain that.”

“I am not Aika, so both of you quit it!”

A frustrated scream destroyed the argument. 

Mel tightened herself into as small a ball as she could become, whimpering and trembling. Her forehead pressed against her knees. I heard her muted laugh, then scream again, and cry. Her palms squeezed her legs so hard, I knew it was taking everything in her power to not move. The pain from her right arm added to it. 

“Cecelia,” I ventured to voice my idea, “You somehow created a link with Kenshin. Can you do that for Mel?” 

She shook her head. “Katrina said we can only form one at a time, except what happened with you. You sent threads everywhere.” 

“We have to help her somehow.” I watched her struggling to remain in control. I didn't want to accept the fact that we could do nothing, that she was doomed to be alone in a horror created by her own mind. 

Kenshin stood, slipping his hand free. “I'm ok.” The fight to remain sane began to creep over his expression once more. “If it gets too bad, hold my hand ok?” 

She nodded, and hugged her doll. She sniffled out an 'ok.' The expression that followed betrayed her need to hold on. She may have formed an empathic link with Kenshin, but it was a security line for her, too. 

I stood as he did. “You sure you don't have the urge to punch me again?” 

He smiled and laughed. “Not yet. Sorry about that.” 

“I'll take the apology, but stay on my guard.” My jaw still throbbed, but it only mingled with everything else, and paled in comparison to the sensation of thinking my lungs were going to explode.

He understood where I was coming from, so simply accepted it. “I read somewhere that the pain from burns can be relieved by wrapping it with moss,” Kenshin shuddered a breath and swallowed as he focused on choosing an emotion to stick with. “There's a type that grows near the waterfalls that's used in medicine. Clean her arm with some water. I'll get the moss.” 

I watched him head for the falls, then moved to crouch next to Mel. She was trembling so hard I could see it, like she was stranded in the arctic without a coat, freezing to death. “Mel? Can you hear me?” 

She didn't respond. I rested my hand on her knee, but that only made her jump and scoot away in a terrified squeak. 

“We need to clean your arm.” I tried to help her up, but she screamed again and pulled away from me. How was I supposed to help her if I couldn't even get her off the floor? She was locked in a labyrinth of emotions, and I couldn't get her out. I felt helpless –on top of everything else.  
“You do it,” Cecelia spoke up. 

“Do what?” I blinked. “Create a link? I can't do that.”

“Not with that attitude.”

“I didn't even know that existed until now.”

“You're the only one left. If you don't try, you're a loser.”

“That's harsh.”

“I don't care. I am not in the best mood right now!” She pointed the doll at me in judgment. “Just try it!”

It was worth a shot if anything. I had no idea what I was doing, or how to do it. Foolish didn't begin to describe how I felt. I cleared my throat. “Mel, calm down.” 

A small pebble hit me in the back. I flinched.

“You have to mean it, Stupid.” Cecelia admonished.

I growled in annoyance. “I thought you said you didn't know how this works.”

“I...I just know you have to mean it from your stomach!” She blurted out. 

I leaned up a little, confused. “Your stomach?”

A strangled sound of frustration pulled her attention back to Kenshin. He'd tucked himself over, clutching a handful of green moss tightly enough to squeeze the moisture from it. She whipped her head back to me. “You're all she has. So you have to!”

I looked back to Mel as she left to help Kenshin. If I didn't do something soon, she would break beyond repair. I exhaled, took her hand in mine, and became serious. “Mel, I don't know if you can hear me yet or not, but I'm gonna try to—” 

She slowly lifted her head, blinking once. Her cheeks were tear-stained. She chuckled, then tensed in pain, and her eyes widened. Her pallor suddenly blanched as powerful panic became her dominant response. The gyroid's eerie tone tipped off a domino effect that ripped control away from even her first recovered emotion. 

Unlike before in the house where she recognized me as a familiar safe source, she regarded me now as a threat. Panic, the harbinger of manic, survival-fueled chaos, blinded her from recognizing anything as friendly.

She scrambled backward, keeping her right arm close to her body. "No!" 

"Take it easy. It's me. I'm not going to hurt you." 

“Get away! Help!” 

I had to get her back to her senses fast before Kenshin's protective streak geared into overdrive again. From what she'd said before, he was like her older brother, and he filled that role by guarding her from anything that threatened her safety. There were only three humans in her town. It made sense they would watch out for each other.

In order for this to have a sliver of a chance, I needed to commit 100% of my concentration, and mean it. I had to crush any sense of foolishness. The fears I'd faced today, my own mortality thrown into my face, all of it still affected me, and I accepted that. Now I had to use that strength to overcome it to save my friend. She was drowning in her own dark sea. Somehow, I needed to dive in and grab her hand before its cimmerian depths could steal her breath, too. 

She pushed out at me with an instinctive cry of fight or flight. Reacting, I snared her left wrist and grappled with her. I became part of the fight. I pulled her toward me and locked my arms around her. I held on through her thrashing to break free.

I couldn't give up now. I had to make sure my thread found the lead reaching out from her. My focus sharpened to that of an artist engrossed in perfecting their creation. For a second, that's all I thought of, all that existed. In my minds eye, I grabbed her hand.

The 'thread' connected. 

A flood of emotions rushed through me at greater pressure than what I'd prepared for. It churned like the ebb and flow of a restless ocean. Everything from hatred to love poured into my chest and head, spreading out to take over like her body held the lightning bolt, and I'd offered it somewhere else to go. It pushed with a pulse not my own. No...Control it! I pushed back, using my own strength to tie it down, and secure that thread around her. The rabid, wild emotions all vying for attention settled down. It all softened to background noise within me. Within her, it remained ever constant, but manageable.

Gradually, her trembling ceased. The tension in her left fist loosened around the fabric of my jacket, and she rested her head heavily against my chest. Her eyes remained wide open, staring at the wall.

I heard soft whimpering. She was crying normally. After what she'd gone through, and the tumultuous chaos she'd fought against, I couldn't fault her. Her frustration and fear bled through, but at least it wasn't pent up, destroying her on the inside. She needed this contact, and, honestly, I did, too. 

I stayed like that with her for only a few minutes, but each pulse lasted twice as long. 

“Don't let go.” 

The whisper was so soft, I could have imagined it. 

She was silent –listening, thinking, regaining her composure. I didn't know which. “Mel?” 

Her voice hardly contained sound, but that was louder than what I'd just heard—or rather, I realized—felt. “Taki?”

“Can you hear me?”

She nodded slightly. “B-barely. You sound like you're far away talking through a pillow.”

“Good. That means your hearing is coming back. You'll be fine.”

“I—I was...”

“Yeah, you were a mess,” I smirked and relaxed my hold. 

She leaned back and wiped at her eyes. 

I helped her to her feet. “We need to wash your arm.” She moved like a zombie for the few steps to the water falls. I pushed up the sleeve of her shirt and could finally completely examine the fern-like pattern drawn down the underside of her forearm in crimson lines from her elbow to star burst across on her palm and up her fingers. It was beautiful, like those leaf emboss projects you create in art class as a little kid. She yelped when I moved her arm under the lighter area of water. That instinctive cry for self preservation hit me in a thrum like echo location—if it could be felt, that is. This time, I knew it wasn't mine. That's when it hit me that my experiences I'd let go in the past with a shrug, and Cecelia's with her animal villagers were parallel. 

I decided not to tell Mel about the link. She didn't need to have this thrown in on top of everything. She'd just calmed down. I'd explain when we got out of here and she could control her emotions on her own again. 

After I made sure her burns were cleaned, we sat back down and waited for Kenshin. He returned and placed the moss carefully on her arm. She grit her teeth, squeezing my hand to keep from crying out. 

It was morbid, but I was relieved that she suffered pain. It meant the lightning had only marked her and not destroyed her nerves. She retained her sense of touch. The both of us were extremely, unusually lucky tonight.

“Got anything we can secure this with?” Kenshin asked.

I ripped another strip from the bottom of my jacket. If this was helping me and my friends, it truly owned up to being a lucky item. 

“There's not going to be much of that left if we keep getting hurt.” Kenshin rolled up her sleeve so the fabric wouldn't fall over the new bandage, and wrapped the blue fabric up around the moss to secure it to her arm. He tied it off at her elbow, giving her room to move. 

The moss quickly worked to cool her burns. She flexed her fingers to test the binds and her own senses. “Thanks. I feel better.”

“You're welcome,” He and I said in sync. 

She blinked in confusion at both of us. “So... who's idea was the moss?”

“Kenshin's,” I volunteered. 

She kept her eyes on her bandage and a small smile creased her lips. “The walking encyclopedia strikes again.”

“I learned that from you,” he sat back. “You're the one who told me about it when I'd burned my hand cooking that one time.”

“Oh yeah,” she whispered. “I forgot. You'd made stew that night. It was delicious.”

I sat back and watched her press her left curled index finger to her lips to hide a heavy exhale. She was stable. I couldn't believe I'd actually succeeded; I'd created an empathic bond to help her control her emotions. Hopefully it would last longer than a few minutes so she could get professional help from Dr. Shrunk in Hana Valley. 

Cecelia helped Kenshin put the extra moss he'd gathered against his own wounds to help heal them and re-wrapped his right leg. There was nothing he could do about his back but let her press the plant to the cut for a few moments.

“Now what?” Cecelia looked up at the cave ceiling, then to us.

“Well, we're in a waterfall cave.” Kenshin noted. “I guess we're really in... 'over our heads.” 

We stared him. 

Cecelia's reaction came out dry. “Did that actually come out of his mouth?” 

“We're in a bad enough situation as it is, Ken,” Mel said as I hid my face in my palm, “I like puns, but don't make it worse with bad ones.” 

Kenshin jabbed a finger at his chest. “Bad puns are my ammo right now. I am trying not to let all this stuff in my head take over, and humor is keeping me from screaming out of this cave like a...like a...”

“Little girl?” I casually chimed in. I got a hateful glare and an elbow jab from Cecelia. “Oomph! Ok, I deserved that.”

“But seriously...what do we do?” Mel got to her feet and walked to the falls, stopping a few feet away from the cascading water. “He's probably out there waiting for us so he can attack again.” She slid her foot back and shook her head. Her body stiffened to a plea within her that found its way out in staccato words. “I don't want to go back out there.”

My hand slid up to my heart when its beat quickened. Her emotions were contained, but they were like fireflies in a jar—desperate for untamed freedom. I accepted my fate of keeping the lid on that jar. If I didn't, her fireflies would incinerate her from the inside, leaving the Mel I knew as a pile of ashes. I couldn't let that happen.

My gaze drifted to Cecelia, and I wondered if she felt this from Kenshin. If she did, nothing about her betrayed any struggle. She might be ten years old, and standing at shoulder height, but Mayor Cecelia of Sugarpine was the strongest of us here.

Kenshin got up to examine the back of the cave. He ran his fingers over the moist rock in the darkness. “It seems like there was an opening here. These rocks are indicative of a cave-in.”

“Think we can dig our way through?” I asked. 

“It's a dirty job. There's no telling how far in the collapse continues. It's 'sedimentary,' my friend.”

Mel groaned, but I smiled despite our situation. The bad puns were helping. 

“Plus, it might be too unstable if we did. We'd risk getting flattened into pancakes.'”

Cecelia shivered. “I like pancakes, but I don't wanna be one.” 

I slumped. “So there is only one way in or out, and we have to get past Sanity Lost and the Crazy Gang to get back to town.”

Kenshin stuffed his hands in his pockets. 

Mel touched her fingertips to the closest stream of clear water flowing unhindered and powerful to the pool a few feet below the cave entrance. The strobe of a lightning strike turned the water into a diaphanous sheet that cocooned her hand. Her eyes widened and a second later, the thunder followed. She fell backwards, curled up, and hid her head in her arms. 

I walked across the cave and knelt next to her. Her fear surged through the link.

“I don't want to go out there, Taki,” she cried. “Don't make me go out there.”

I let my hand rest on top of her head, slid my palm down to her shoulders and eased her back up to a sitting position. “The odds of that happening again are seriously slim,” I consoled. “Your walking encyclopedia can probably tell you that.” 

Kenshin opened his mouth to respond when he got a look from Cecelia that said, 'You'd better lie if that's not true, or you're gonna regret it.' He cleared his throat and limped back to the front of the cave. “Yeah. Very slim. And Emerson might not even be out there anymore.”

“He's out there.” Cecelia peered past the curtain of water as though she could see beyond the barricade of the cliff wall and the burning tree beyond. “He won't quit. He won't stop until he gets what he wants.”

“Well, we can't stay here.” I said. “They likely know about this place. If they decide to rush us, we have nowhere to run.”

“Then we don't run.” Kenshin unleafed the ax from his pocket. “We stay and fight.”

“'Stay and fight?!'” Mel argued. “Look at us! We're a collective clusterbrush of 'screwed up.' You're injured and your emotions are a train wreck. You can't even put your weight on that leg anymore. We were struck by lightning. Taki drowned, and Cecelia's possessed!”

“I am not possessed!” 

“We are in no condition to fight.” She paused. “Or run.”

Cecelia held up the doll at eye level and stared into its permanently stitched smile. “Then I'll give him what he wants.”

Kenshin hobbled over. “You are not giving yourself over to that monster.”

“He's after me and not you.” She gripped the doll tightly. 

“Cecelia,” Mel gasped. “You can't.”

“If I do, then you guys can get out of here and go to Hana Valley. Kenshin and Mel need Dr. Shrunk. Nobody here needs me.” She lowered her arms, but kept a firm grip on the limp doll. 

“That's a lie.” I gestured to Kenshin. “You're the only one keeping him on his feet. Take what you told me and apply it to yourself.”

“But...but I don't want you guys to get hurt anymore.”

Kenshin releafed the ax, returned it to his pocket, and shuffled across the dirt to stand over the small girl. He'd picked up something subtle from her –a sense of loneliness the rest of us heard, but he felt. Without wasting a beat, he pulled her into a hug.

She fought back. “Let me go, Kenshin! Let me do this!”

“No.” His reply rang with absolute law as he held on. “I don't understand what's going on with you, or why you can't let go of that doll, but you're fighting a battle we can't see. You're suffering. And I'm not going to leave you alone to fend for yourself. Because of you, I can think straight. It's true that I do need you, but more than that, you're my friend. Friends don't abandon each other. I don't care if you are Aika, Alice, or Cecelia. I am not leaving this town without you.”

She stilled in his arms. Her martyr's conviction crumbled. She finally stopped acting brave for the sake of everyone and let go even as he refused to do the same as an embodiment of his promise. “Kenshin,...” she whispered. “I'm scared.” 

“I know,” he answered in true empathy. “Me, too.” 

“Your mental eggs are scrambled.” She sniffled into his shirt. “You have a good reason to be scared.”

“So do you. He's targeted you. You need our help.”

“That makes me sound like an annoying kid.”

He smirked. “You are an annoying kid.”

She landed her fist lightly against his side. “You're not supposed to agree with me.”

He smiled and let her go.

Now that Cecelia was on board with getting out of here together, I put us back on the subject of escaping with our lives. “We're still at step One of how to get past Emerson and Sarah. Not to mention avoiding Octavian at all costs.” 

“What about that beach past the waterfall?” Mel suggested. “There might be a way back from there.”

“I checked while we were gathering moss. The tree is still burning, but the fire looks really low,” Cecelia took a deep breath. “It's not raining as hard. We can make it to the beach without being seen.”

The beach on the other side of the river inlet to the ocean... This cave didn't extend all the way around. Straight, slick rock stretched too far for us to jump to the other side. Water erosion had smoothed out any hand or footholds on the cliff face, so we couldn't shimmy across, either. That meant going in the water. I knew it was our only option, but my legs instantly cut communication with my brain. My phobia reared its ugly head with gnashing, glimmering teeth. Its power strengthened by the experience of feeling my heart stop. I'd always avoided water that went above my waist because of my fear of drowning. This town turned my fears into reality once. What force existed to stop it from happening again? I didn't want to set foot in anything but a bathtub again for the rest of my...second...life.

Mel froze. Her shoulders tensed, and she slowly turned her head to face me.

A ball of dread dropped into my gut. Oh no. I was still connected to her. Did she feel my fear? Or did she just remember what happened to me?

Mel tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “We're getting out of here together.”

"Uh..." I stumbled, "yeah. It's just..."

“Would you like me to carry you?” Kenshin folded his arms in a mocking stance.  

That sobered up my bravery. I shot his smirking mug a derisive glare. “Shut up.” 

Cecelia grabbed Kenshin's hand and lead him outside. He didn't exhibit signs of instability, so this was more to hurry things along.  

I stepped out the side of the falls and watched them jump into the water, bob to the surface, and swim to the other side. I forced down the hard lump that formed in my throat. The pool's depth wouldn't allow someone to walk across. It was definitely higher than my waist.

My foot slipped back. I couldn't do this. Not so soon. 

I felt the warm pressure of her fingers knit through mine. My hand closed around hers with a mind of its own. If I was her lifeline for her emotions, she was my lifeline for my fear of drowning. Again. 

The cold wind chilled our wet skin through the cloth, but the blood pounding in my ears felt like fire. My jaw tightened. _I can do this...I can do this...I can do this..._

“You can do this.”

Her echo of my thoughts surprised me. Thanks to the link, I knew she was scared, but also in control. Her fear was mine, but I felt something else with it: her trust. She trusted me completely without question. Now I needed to trust her. 

Her head tilted up to the sky. As I watched her preparing to take on the storm and the terrors of Aika village again, something inside me snapped –like breaking a cyalume in the darkness to see. Its warm, comforting glow brightened and melted through my core. I'd never felt this. Was it mine, or was it hers? 

Somehow, throughout the course of our shared nightmare, Mel from Seaside ceased to be another friend I'd made in my life. In that moment, she became someone important to me. 

“Take a deep breath,” she instructed. Her green eyes returned to keep me in sight. “And don't let go.”

I shifted my hand to get a firm grasp on her wrist and her fingers latched around mine. 

“On the count of three.” Her grip tightened. “One...”

The waters created choppy white crests swelling up and down in the force of the winds and river. It was alive and hungry to take me back. 

“Two...”

The increasing need to run sent volts through my veins. I bit it back. _She only has one good arm to swim with, and hitting the water will hurt. If I lose my cool, we'll both suffer. I have to hold it together for her. I can do this. I_ will _do this! I won't let go._ The muscles of my fingers locked in place to the steel of my resolve. _Ever._

“Three.”

I forced will power through my legs, cherished my last moments on solid ground, and holding on to Mel as if she contained my life...

I jumped.

\--------------- 

TBC


	13. A Silk Rose Garden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They reach the end of the private beach only to find it's the end of their line. At the end of that line is a garden box holding the buried memories of a girl who drowned.

**CHAPTER 13: A Silk Rose Garden**

I crawled onto the shore like it owed me a million bells and collapsed onto my back. My chest heaved in great gulps of air. My muscles became lead weights that pulled me into the embrace of dry land. I did not want to move for a year. The moss around my right arm under the bandages kept the pain at bay from both the impact into the cold water and from being forced to use both of my arms to keep Taki's head above the surface. I was stressed, winded, and tired.

That fear of drowning coiled around me. I pulled my feet up, suddenly fearing it would form into hooks to drag me back in. That confused me. I'd never felt that way about the sea.

“We're alive,” Taki flopped close by against the precious ground. “We made it.”

“We almost didn't thanks to you,” I snarled at him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

“You kept pushing me under.”

“You said to hold on,” He matched my spat perfectly.

“To my hand, not my whole body. I can't breathe underwater.”

“Well, the last time I tried didn't turn out so good,” he shot back.

“I'm a good swimmer, Taki! I told you to relax!" I leaned into his face. The anger pumped through me. Why...why was I so mad?

"You yelled at me to relax, which is --on yeah-- the opposite of 'relaxing.'"

"I knew what I was doing. I knew how to support you to shore."

"Me and water do not get along, Mel. We never will!"

“You needed to trust me!”

“I did trust you!” He defended and got to his feet. “But did you have to yell directly into my ear?”

I quickly joined him. “Yes! You weren't hearing anything else! You were screaming your head off!"

“Can you blame me?!”

“No, I can't! You have every reason in the world to be terrified! You have every right to panic!”

“Then why are you in my face like this is my fault?!”

“Because I'm scared of the water, Taki! I've never been scared of the water!”

As soon as we broke the surface, his brain went into panic mode, and for some reason, so did mine. I loved the ocean. I loved the crawl and retreating of the waves, the 'shush' sound it makes on the shore, the sunlight reflecting in golden flecks off the water, and the feeling of swimming freely within its depths. Feeling that kind of savage fear for my life in regards to the sea didn't make sense. Why would I succumb to thinking I was going to die? 

“Hey!” Cecelia balled up her fists. “Maybe you wanna to be a little louder. I don't think the town heard you.”

We both jammed our fingers at each other simultaneously. “She started it!”

“He started it!”

Shocked at the synchronized accusation, but still fuming, we turned it toward each other. The dissonant static buzzed between us. “I did not! You did.”

“Guys, act your age. Not your shoe size,” Kenshin slid between us, breaking that static. He looked askance at our friend. “Taki. Focus.”

The tone in Kenshin's voice held an entire conversation I wasn't privy to. Maybe it involved a topic they'd discussed when my hearing took a vacation. Whatever silent message they shared, Taki's expression hardened to understanding, and he forced himself to exhale. Air left him so heavily, he instinctively gripped his shirt over his chest.

I knew he hadn't fully recovered from the trauma he'd gone through at the house with his hallucination of the roaches, coming back to life, and then the lightning strike.

His fists clenched at his side as he stared at his shoes, forcing himself to settle down.

I relaxed and pressed my palm to the side of my head. That surge of anger left behind a throbbing headache. The longer I watched him, the more it swirled into crushing guilt. 

I'd pulled him back into the thing that killed him, and then admonished him for reacting like any normal person would. “Oh no... Taki, I...”

How could I yell at him? What a horrible monster I'd become. I wanted to rip out the tangled ball of all of this in my chest and crush it. “I'm sorry. You've been through so much. This isn't me. I'm more in control that this.” I pushed my wet hair out of my face. It's length, forcefully cut against my will, drew out more frustration at the memory and I clutched thick clumps of it in my fists.

He shifted his weight to his left foot from the jellyfish sting, and held out his hand. ”You're right. And I need to remember that.”

The moment I touched his hand, that swell of emotions settled down. The relief felt amazing.

I needed to control this somehow until we could get help. I wondered, if I adopted the method Kenshin had used, could I get through this with my sanity intact. He'd focused on one positive emotion. Maybe I could do the same. I just had to find one thread to—

“You're ok now, right?” Taki asked. 

A warm light expanded in my core and melted through the negativity. I was still scared, but somehow felt better. I didn't know what it was—I'd never felt it before now, but it was exactly what I needed. “Yeah.”

“Sheesh,” Cecelia started walking up the small beach. “Just how strong is that link?”

“Huh? ” What did she mean by that? What link? I opened my mouth to ask about it, but Kenshin interrupted.

“Hey!” He whispered loudly to us to get our attention and flagged us over to the cliff side. “Over here. Come on, come on, come on.” he urged. 

We hurried behind a large boulder flush up against the cliff. 

“What's up?” Taki became serious.

Kenshin pointed up to the cliff across from the waterfall. “Them.” 

Three flashlight beams scanned through the drizzle, swaying back and forth in lazy, random paths.

Breath hitched in my throat. “Emerson?”

Cecelia shook her head. “No. The people holding the flashlights are too big. See?” She pointed upward. 

One of the torch bearers towered over the others. It lumbered ahead of the group to the remains of the split oak tree. The shadow boasted broad shoulders, a head as wide as the three of us standing side by side, and broad floppy ears that hung down to its shoulders. 

“An elephant,” Kenshin hushed. He scanned the other two silhouettes. “One of them looks like a gorilla, and the other is an alligator.” 

“It makes sense that the animals living here would be the larger types,” Taki noted. 

These animals would need to possess the brute strength, natural tools, and ability to control seriously dangerous humans. Octavian had lifted me and Taki like we were living versions of Cecelia's doll.

The animals of Aika Village left no room for error. They were prepared to handle situations on land, and in the water.

The menacing profile of the alligator opened its mouth. A lightning flash momentarily outlined the black jagged spears of its teeth.

A chill shivered down my spine. Not once had I ever feared the animals before this town invaded my life, but those teeth looked ready to shred something...or someone...to pieces. What if they already had? If he caught us, would we be next? 

Taki's hand rested on my shoulder reassuringly. Taking the hint, I found that ball of light again and focused on it. The fear dissolved within its warmth. Whatever this feeling was, it was powerful, and I honestly did not want it to fade.

As soon as the flashlights all narrowed in on the burned skeleton of the tree, we hurried quickly up the beach, hugging the cliff side the whole time until we rounded a corner out of sight. Then we broke into a run. Kenshin kept up pretty well for being injured. 

The edge of the small personal beach rolled into view. I picked up my pace from the excitement and promise of freedom, kicking up sand from my soggy shoes. The trestle we'd come across earlier that night emerged from the darkness like a ghost. Massive bars of cold black metal stretched from this island into the fog and storm.

Finally, we could get out of here. We couldn’t go home yet, but we could take the tracks to Hana Valley. If we could avoid the tarantulas, the tracks would be a safe zone. We'd be free of this nightmare. We'd be all right. 

I scanned the cliff for a path up to the mainland and ran by a patch of roses I cared nothing for. My feet splashed into the surf.

I only stopped when the water reached my knees. I gawked in true, utter defeat. Disbelief cloaked my shoulders. “No,” I whimpered. 

The cliff continued out to sea where it collided with a massive pile of wave breakers and boulders supporting the trestle. They looked like a giant stone tumbleweed thrown haphazardly against the cliff. The tracks were too high and too far away to reach by jumping, and in this storm, swimming would cost our lives. Waves crashed in unforgiving white sprays against the rocks. If we tried to combat this hurdle, we'd lose. All of us would breathe our last. 

My knees quivered.

This corner of sand marked our end. 

We were trapped. This town was designed to lock us in from every angle, and no matter where we went, we'd remain prisoners in Aika Village. That solitary stone bridge across the river remained our only way out.

Taki looked like he would fall over any second. His expression paled beneath a sheet of dread. “You gotta be kidding me.”

I felt his hope fade away with mine, and it left me twice as empty. 

“No! Why!?” His right foot splashed in the surf. He stumbled back like it burned him. “We're so close! The tracks are right there!”

I stared across the expanse. 100 feet of tumultuous sea raged between us and our way home.

“Mel, don't!” 

I turned around at his determined cry.

“You can't swim out there!”

“I wasn't going to,” I sloshed sadly back through the surf to the shore. “The waters are too choppy. We'd be crushed against the rocks.”

Taki carried the weight of someone who'd been told his town burned down and all his villagers moved away. I wanted to reassure him that we'd get out of this, but...

I pushed my wind-blown hair out of my face as I looked up at the straight, slightly knobby cliff face looming over us. An idea prickled my mind. “What if we climb?”

Cecelia craned her neck to see the edge of the mainland. I saw her shudder and pull the doll closer. “It's so high up,” her words whispered through a squeak of fear. “And there are tarantulas up there. And what about Kenshin? His leg and his back are hurt.”

Kenshin's injuries would inhibit him from scaling the cliff. Climbing might not be within his physical ability right now, not to mention running from giant spiders who almost caught us the first time. We had no choice: we had to cross the river inlet again for a way off this beach.  
I looked back at him kneeling among the cluster of roses looking at the ground.

Wait...roses can't grow on the beach. The water table is too close to the surface, and there's no soil for nutrients. Palm trees are one thing, but roses are fickle flora. They need a specific set of requirements to thrive, and the beach with its harsh salt spray did not fulfill that list. 

I stepped closer to get a look at what held his interest. 

Someone embedded a single, flat, rectangular grave stone into a raised fabricated garden. That would explain the roses, but not their ability to grow. 

Cecelia didn't face us. She stood as a sentry, staring back the way we'd come, waiting for Emerson to find her. 

I brushed my finger lightly over the petals of a rose. “It's fake. These roses are all made of treated fabric.” 

“They're eternal,” Cecelia still refused to face us, but the wind easily carried her words. “Nothing can end them unless the sea takes them itself,” 

Her behavior and tone weren't the same from moments ago when she'd yelled at Taki and I for bickering. She sounded...older.

Lines of the odd language drew across the grave plaque's dark gray width in neat vertically engraved rows. I recognized one set that appeared on the letter in the library, and on the sign above the train station. 

あいか (Aika).

“What's it say?” Taki took up a place in the roses across from me. 

Kenshin easily interpreted the strange code for us. “Here lies the spirit of Aika. Daughter of Sayaka and Isamu. Lived 7 years into her second life, age 9-16. May her soul find peace within the sea she loved.”

“Second life?” I repeated. “What does that mean?” As far as I knew, Taki should be the only one to carry that title.

Cecelia's fists clenched tightly around the doll. Her whole body stiffened. 

I crouched down among the hand made flowers, taking in everything and gently touching the plaque. 

Taki stared out to sea. “Whoever put this here knew they wouldn't find her body. This beach is too shallow to bury someone, so,” he frowned in sadness at the grave, “this was the only marker they could commit to her memory.”

“They buried her memory,” I muttered. The proof of a girl who once lived was laid to rest here. She was once happy, laughing, and toward the end, because of Emerson, crying. Sayaka and Isamu lie in pit-fall-trapped graves at the police station, but their daughter's memory rested all the way across town at a beach isolated from everyone and everything. Like this was as far as she could get to escaping her nightmare—her Wonderland and her Hatter.

“The animals,” Taki's eyes widened as a memory rushed forth. He pushed to take over Kenshin place. Kenshin moved out of the way, confused, but curious. “Remember what Emerson said? The animals buried Aika's close personal belongings except for that doll.”

Kenshin caught on to his line of thought. “You mean they buried mementos in place of her body.”

He nodded. “If I'm right, then...” Taki grit his teeth and began digging up the dirt around the plaque.

My jaw dropped. “Taki, what are you doing? That's a grave!”

“Help me,” he begged to Kenshin. Both boys dug up muddy clumps of earth, tossing them unceremoniously into the closest fabricated roses. Dirt crushed their petals and destroyed their immortality. 

I glanced back to Cecelia. She hadn't said a word this whole time. She remained stoic, pale, and still –as if the blood drained from her body. I stood, ready to lace into the boys about defiling sacred ground when I heard her small voice. 

“They're coming,” Cecelia muttered. She suddenly snapped around to us and jogged over. "We have to climb up the cliff, now!” 

“Come on, come on,” Taki urged, praying he wasn't wrong. His and Kenshin hands were filthy as they dug up clump after clump. They pulled the plaque aside, revealing a time capsule with Aika's name on it above the date '2009'. He opened it. A hiss of air years old rushed out. Determined, he fished through the trinkets, leaves, and clothes until he finally jimmied a small silver box free from the bottom. Quickly, he brushed the mud away left by his fingers, revealing a small keyhole. “Yes!” He wiped his hand off on his jacket, dug the small key from his pocket, and held it up. “Please don't be a pointless side quest.”

Taking a risk, Taki slipped the key into the silver box and turned his wrist to the left.

The lock clicked. 

The box opened to reveal a red velvet plush interior protecting a single item: a long, slender, silver-tone whistle strung on a matching chain nestled within the velvet.

I felt a sense of elation as he removed the whistle and clutched it like a rare gem. Why did I feel so relieved about a thing that held no meaning to me?

“Why are you still standing around?” Cecelia yelled. “Hurry up, Taki!”  

Taki slipped the necklace over his head, tucked it under his shirt, and the four of us ran back to the inlet.

“What's—?“ I began. 

“I'll explain later.” He urged me to start crossing the water. However, he didn't move.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him in with me. He pulled back, instinctively fighting. I urged him to hold on and be brave.

Thankfully this time, we made it to the other side quickly. Taki collapsed to his hands and knees on the beach. "You're enjoying this, aren't you," he panted.

"Yes, I love watching you suffer," I snipped sarcastically. It was a mechanism to cover my heightened fear. "Of course I'm not enjoying this." I helped him stand. Honestly, seeing him in that much agony stabbed me through the core. I never wanted to see him shivering in fear. Ever. 

“um...” Cecelia looked behind us and bit her lip. “the tree's not on fire anymore." 

We looked beyond its smoldering corpse to a lumbering shadow rushing toward us up the beach. 

"We have to climb." Taki pushed me toward the cliff. "Go. Go!" 

We scrambled to the rock face and started climbing. 

Kenshin struggled to stay with Cecelia. Even injured, and quivering in pain, he refused to let it take him down. 

Small stones clattered to the sand, loosed from our ascent.

It was difficult to find stable footing on the slippery cliff face. The rain moistened the earth, making any dirt hand holds incredibly risky to put our full weight on. My hands were shaking as my feet went from one precarious foothold to another, and my arms trembled pulling up my own weight. Taki moved up beside me, then up. I waited, knowing the knobs he used were safe. We'd made it half way up the cliff.

“Kittens climbing walls!” Sarah admonished, as if she were our caretaker trying to reign in mischievous children. “You'll need a time-out for that!” She climbed up as quickly as a spider, gripped my ankle, and pulled. 

I screamed, holding desperately to the rock. My right arm faltered from a spear of pain. I forced myself to hang on. If we fell from this height, I doubted we'd get away without breaking any bones. “Let go!” Her stick-like fingers dug their nails into my skin. 

My grip wavered. I heard Taki cry out my name, and then...

I fell. 

The momentum carried me and my assailant to the ground. My eyes scrunched shut just before impact. 

I hit the sand hard and cut open my lip. The iron tang of blood stained my tongue. I felt the jarring shock wave through my body, knocking the breath from my lungs. It ripped through me, shredding my nerves, and for a brief moment, I blacked out. My eyes fluttered open and I rolled to the sand. I'd landed on something softer, and to my surprise, nothing was broken. However, Sarah took the brunt of the fall. 

A blood-curdling scream left her as she clutched her left arm, bent the wrong way. I scrambled to my feet, unable to speak as I watched her lurch like a broken scarecrow in the wind. Her face scrunched up from pain, almost like she was fighting her body's motions. 

And then suddenly, her fight ended. Her body tensed, and she lost the battle with whatever force controlled her. She turned red, menacing eyes to me. The pure rage within them tortured her with the soul goal of ending me and everything about me regardless of her broken limb. 

My heart skipped. Her insanity created its own field of energy that encapsulated me. The dark soulless orbs of her eyes widened to a painful level above her toothy, horse laughter celebrating an early victory. They swallowed me whole. 

That stare established a fatal connection to the emotions running unchecked through my head. They paralyzed me. An intense urge to scream locked the air in my throat so my breaths were quick and sharp. My back pressed against the cliff wall. I had nowhere to run. 

No one thinks about the blood inside their veins, how at every moment of your life, it's moving through your arms, your chest, your legs, your neck, your head. That constant motion of liquid allows you to feel warm. It carries oxygen to your mind and nutrients to your body. It's just there. But when you're faced with something that could end that flow and the beat of your heart that pulses it through you, all you feel is cold, and all you can think about is how to keep that blood—that life—moving inside you. 

Sarah gripped my shoulder and threw me to the ground. Her broken arm dangled uselessly at her side, but her rage was so strong that the pain only fueled it. 

She pressed her hand against my face and shoved it into the sand. “Can't run away now, kitten. Stop struggling, you piece of—“

Grains of sand pressed into my cheek. I reached for anything that could help, but the beach gave me nothing. Tears pooled at my eyes. I scrunched them closed and clawed into her face. The nails raking through the inside of my head ripped at my thoughts and consciousness, forcing its sanity into my brain as though it were a dagger slowly piercing my forehead. Fear for my life and flashes of pain mingled into a weak sound that forced from my hoarse voice. Part of myself lay exposed to the slashing daggers of this invading link leaving bloody shreds behind.

 _Mel!_

Taki's voice... I barely heard it, but it was unmistakable. He may as well have been right next to me. 

_You can fight her!_

Sarah's oily wrap constricted my emotions. _I can't..._

_Get up, Mel! Fight!_

My eyes opened once more. That's right...I promised we'd get out of this place together, and that meant we needed to stay alive. No matter what, I would fulfill that promise! A new well of strength pulled all of my emotions away, and in that moment, I felt her hold on me snap. That warm glow from before pushed it away. A rapid, frantic flutter overtook my heartbeat for a moment, then calmed down.

Her wail of frustration overpowered the thunderstorm. I took my chance at freedom, kicked her away, and rolled. She grabbed my ankle again, dragging me back. I kicked out, landing my shoe against her nose, and scrambled away. My right hand gripped around a shell jutting up out of the beach. I grabbed it just as she clutched the back of my shirt, leaned up, and slammed the shell with all my strength into the side of her head.

It collided with her skull in a sickening 'thud' that knocked her to the sand. Red liquid seeped through her wet hair down her face. 

I scooted back, trembling and holding the shell now edged with her blood. I swallowed and held on tightly to that powerful glow within me that saved my sanity and fought back my fear. Yet another thought escaped when Sarah didn't move. 

The shell slipped from my fingers to plop into the moist sand. Had—had I just given Fang a reason to keep me here?

“Mel!”

I forced my stiff neck to look up at the sound of my name.

Taki clung to the cliff side where I'd fallen with his right hand extended out toward me. He was panting, like he'd finished running multiple laps non stop around town. He arm flopped to his side and he exhaled. “Come on! You can climb!”

I got to my feet and stared at Sarah's body. A slight groan left her lips and I backed away. I thanked everything out there that she lived, but that meant she could get back up to come after us again.

I climbed the cliff once more. Taki waited for me. We both scaled up and pulled ourselves over the edge onto wet grass. Here, we had a chance to make it to the bridge, to Hana Valley, and then finally...home. “I've never been so happy to be on solid ground.”

Unbeknownst to me, Taki had focused on establishing a stronger connection to combat Sarah's unintentional empathic link. He blocked her completely. I owed him my life. I wish I'd known that at the time, because then I would have—

“Mel!” Cecelia ran over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “I'm so glad you're ok,” she sobbed. 

This was the first time she'd shown concern for me that I knew of. I hugged her back, a little taken off guard by her action, but happy for it. “I'm all right. Sarah. She's...”

Cecelia blinked, then crawled over to look down at the beach and the other woman's form splayed out on the sand. Then without warning, she dashed wide eyed back to Kenshin. “Please stand up, Kenshin,” Cecelia pulled on his arm. “I know it hurts, but we have to keep running. We have to go now.” 

I glanced over at him and my jaw dropped. He knelt, hunched over, breathing hard. Large blood stains covered the back of his shirt and right pant leg. He'd pushed himself to the limit to ensure Cecelia's safety up the cliff. 

“Take it easy on him,” I demanded. “We need to rest for a minute.” 

Cecelia's frantic attempts to pull him to his feet stopped. With steady, controlled motions, she knelt down, put the doll onto her lap, and clamped both of her small hands around his face. 

He tilted his head up enough to look into her eyes, and his breathing slowed. The storm within him calmed. 

I watched him relax, and then Cecelia picked up the doll again to hold it and scooted to her feet. She didn't care that her dress was covered in mud, or her hair lost its curl long ago from the weight of the rain. 

The Cecelia I'd come to know should be ordering us to move, in the demanding way kids do when they want something. But she didn't. In fact, she didn't appear to be bothered by anything. All she did was offer a small smile to Kenshin. 

He stood, grunted in pain, but held strong. “Mel, are you ok?”

I got to my feet and nodded. “Shaken up, b-but yeah.”

“I'm not surprised," came a separate voice we hoped we'd never hear again. "When all she feels is rage, Sarah can be...hard to deal with.” Emerson emerged from the darkness with John beside him. The other still carried the deactivated gyroid. 

John blinked and exhaled lightly. “She's unconscious. I've disconnected.”

“She did her job. That's all I care about.” 

“What if her breath leaves, gone, good-bye forever? No more Sarah,” John choked up.  

“She wouldn't be the first.” Emerson said with vague interest. He stepped up to Cecelia, only Kenshin put himself in between them. He stopped. “Still protecting her, even after what you know?”

Kenshin said nothing.

Emerson huffed out a breath in exasperation. “Fine. Have it your way. I should have done this from the beginning. John, turn Kenshin on his friends. I don't need him anymore anyway.” he nodded to the other.

John shuffled forward. 

“That won't work,” Cecelia moved around her friend to become the frontal force of the group. She stood unwavering, and even though she was the smallest of us here, even with her face scratched up from the night's terrors, she showed no sense of pain. “I've locked the thread. He can't be manipulated by you. Don't waste your energy John. Just go home.”

John's face shifted to surprise. “Aika?” 

“Aika,” Emerson said her name like a prayer. He smiled and inched closer. 

The air wavered around Cecelia drifting around her like the wind that pulled at her hair, only this one felt different, unnatural, and heavy. 

“Y-you're dead... Emerson saw you die.” John's pallor turned the shade of vanilla. “You're dead. You're dead!” He dropped the gyroid and stumbled back, gripping what remained of his hair. He tripped over his own two feet, falling into the mud and trembling like a leaf. What he saw, perhaps a specter born from his unique gift, none of us could understand. “You're dead!” He scrambled to his feet and ran drunkenly back into town with that phrase proclaimed in alarm to a place that didn't care. “You're dead!” 

Cecelia didn't move. 

Emerson didn't blink.

And Taki, Kenshin, and I stared transfixed at the 4 foot tall girl that sent a grown man screaming for his sanity into the night.

When she spoke again, her voice was older in pitch, and held sadness. The green of her eyes completely gave over to a dark brown, almost black shade. “What you plan to do will destroy people, Emerson, not free them. You're intelligent, gifted, and motivated. Your crime is not in breaking an animal or human's body, it's in your ability to break their mind—the one part medicine can't heal. You destroy people from the inside out. And that makes you the most dangerous person in this world.”

“No...” Emerson reached out. “I was trying to help you. I can still help you! Aika!”

“I'm sorry, Emerson,” her head tilted down, and her voice turned cold, “But I have to stop you.”

\--------------- 

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That is a picture of my silver whistle. Yes, it really works. :)


	14. The Nightmare of Aika

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aika reveals her story.

 

**CHAPTER 14: The Nightmare of Aika**

_This isn't me..._

_Why am I saying these things? Why can't I stop?_

That voice coming out of my mouth didn't belong to me, nor did the thoughts that birthed before the words became sounds. I watched it all as though I was watching a movie carrying me along for the ride. This man standing slack-jacked in front of me... I knew him. I knew Emerson like he was family, or something, but at the same time, I knew I had nothing to do with him until today. He frightened me.

My arms tightened of their own will around the doll.  _No, arms, let go... I don't want it anymore!_

Kenshin stood close behind me. His presence gave me comfort, and I could feel him trying to make sense of what I was saying. I wished I could explain the emotions coursing through me, rooting me to the ground, but my will hit a brick wall. This other person—Aika—siphoned my energy. She drew it from me like a flea leaching blood to survive.

All of my memories of tonight were edged in shadows. I'd experienced everything for both myself and for Aika.

I felt lightheaded, and my vision got all fuzzy.  _Help me, Kenshin,_ I pushed my cry through the link to the one who was a stranger less than 24 hours ago, but was now incredibly important to me.  _I don't wanna be lost. I don't wanna fade away to nothing. I'm scared._

Aika must have heard me. The part of me that remained awake did so because of the link. She'd tethered me to Kenshin to help control his emotions, and –I suddenly realized—to keep me from disappearing. I held onto that link as tightly as I could. I didn't want to be alone. As long as I could feel him there, I'd never be alone. Not ever again. 

I could hear her voiceless scream. She wanted to leave this place, but she couldn't because of him. Emerson was her pain, but he also held...

...her heart.

I heard Kenshin's voice call my name. He reached out to me when the winds suddenly picked up.

The air pulled together between me and Emerson, swirling with dead leaves and dust and sprinkles of rain. It spun like a tornado, sucking the wind around it to its core.

Kenshin stayed close to the me, knowing right now would be the worst time in my life to leave my side. I wavered as the winds formed into the silhouette of a teenage girl standing as tall as Mel. I could see through her slim frame and red outfit to a shocked and thrilled Emerson smiling in glee.

My friends gawked in disbelief and fear as the form gained enough definition to be recognized.

We were looking at the ghost of someone who's been dead for eight years.

She said nothing. She stared, unmoving, at my assailant.

Emerson swallowed hard. "Aika," he reached out to touch the simulacrum, though his fingers passed through the air. "You stayed for me. I knew it. I knew you were here."

"I stayed for you," her mellifluous voice hummed from my vocal cords, though her mouth remained closed, "because I didn't have a choice."

His smile faltered.

"Your sorrow over my death trapped me here. You refused to let me go. I just wanted peace, Emerson."

Even though I spoke, he addressed the projection between us. "After all these years, you still think that wasn't my goal? That's all I ever wanted for you! You chose to link to me because you trusted me. Everything I did was meant to bring you that peace."

"You are not my Emerson," I stated. The image frowned in a powerful sadness that I felt tear through my core. "My Emerson died in the storm 9 years ago from a lightning strike." The transparent girl's hand extended to mimic my own motion in order to brush its fingers through the scars marring the left side of his face. I knew that scar extended down half of his body. My...no...her memory let me see it. The more I spoke, the more I wanted to know her story, so I let her.

She continued. "I was naïve enough to believe you were the same after you woke up from your coma, but Dr. shrunk realized that you'd changed. That lightning strike destroyed your sense of morality, and your empathy. You'd become obsessed with eliminating the need for Methodical Engagement. You still used the link I'd secured with you when I was 12 just like you always did, but it was harsh and unforgiving. We were both broken. Between your poison influence and the experiments, I went insane. For 3 years, you were my heart, guiding me to control my emotions one at a time. For the 4th, you were my hell. My Emerson fell into a coma and never woke up."

"We made incredible strides toward emotion recovery because of that," He spread his arms to take in the town. "Everyone in this world owes us their gratitude. They can feel again because of what I developed here with you. Dr. Shrunk took my credit. You and I...we were going to take that back. You were everything to me."

"I know," I whispered. "But you became a monster."

"One man's monster is another man's savior, Aika. That's the nature of science." He ground his teeth and his eyes flicked to the doll in my arms. "When I saw that girl holding this, that's when I knew it was you, and that the rumor of the haunted doll was true. You'd come back to me. I could finally prove to you that I was right. Humans are strong enough to withstand Synchronial Engagement."

"No," her image looked behind her, and I followed suit to stare at Kenshin and Mel, "We're not. I waited all these years for help to truly stop you. This girl," the projection glanced to me, "Cecelia, has an energy almost identical to mine. When she picked up the doll, I was able to jump to her and use her as an anchor instead. Through her, I could see the world from a different point of view, feel her sense of loneliness, and learned how to care enough to help her save someone important to her. The longer I made her hold onto the doll, the more I gained back what you'd stolen from me: clarity."

"We were so close to a breakthrough, Aika!" He stepped forward, raising his voice.

My eyes narrowed. "You took me into the void as a shattered mess, insisting that knowing the truth would slingshot me back to the person I was. I saw the frozen city, and the people like statues, and I couldn't handle it. These are things we shouldn't know like this, Emerson. Maybe in another way, but your way ensured I could never tell what was real again anymore. I had nightmares of that place, and you were in them. What you set free in my mind gave life to those nightmares and tortured me day and night. I killed my parents in my madness while I screamed 'I love my mommy.' I trusted you to help me through my pain, but you made it worse. I had no escape from any of it."

"Setbacks for the betterment of humanity. You would have been fine had you stayed."

"Dr. Shrunk knew I was a failure, and he knew what you were doing. That's why he developed the red Reset potion for me after we returned. You'd found my letter in the library, and fought with him over his decision to end the project, then you came after me."

"You were going to leave here and ruin everything we've worked for. I couldn't let you go."

"I was going to take the boat to Tortimer's island and drink the potion there so I could forget about all of this; this town, my parents, my emotions...you. I wanted to go back to Zero and start a new life somewhere else away from here. The part of me that remembered who you used to be wanted you to come with me so we could start over together. The Reset potion was my only chance. I couldn't let you destroy it."

He lowered his voice to a grave seriousness. "They blamed me for your death, you know. I told them we'd gotten into a fight, but no one believed me that you'd slipped and fallen into the sea. They didn't believe me that I'd tried to save you, but I couldn't find you. Your red shoes washed up on the beach, but you were gone." His face contorted in pain at the memory. "Our threads were still locked. I felt you die, Aika. Do you have any idea what that did to me?"

I heard Mel gasp and cover her mouth.

"I do. I've watched you for 8 years. I'm sorry," My voice cracked from the sheer weight of her guilt. "Keeping you here was Fang's only way to protect everyone else. He tried to help the other humans sent here, but you, the true predator, always got to them first. He realized that if you could break someone's sanity with the limited supplies you found here, what you could do out there would be catastrophic. He turned this village into your cage."

A laugh of realization exploded from him. "That old fart demolished Dr. Shrunk's house because of my conviction? They falsely accused me of murder, because they were afraid of me?" He laughed harder and louder. "They really are stupid. They named this town after you to honor you, but all it did was fuel my desire to complete my work no matter what the cost. I'd already lost the most precious thing in my life. Nothing else mattered. I've had almost a decade imprisoned in this stank hole to perfect Synchronial Engagement. Kenshin gave me the last piece I needed, and I tested it on Mel. It worked beautifully. A little bit of therapy, and they'll be fine."

The image wordlessly shook her head. "That's not true," I spoke for her.

"I will find a way out of this town and give humanity back what it lost in the awakening process from the void. I've memorized everything needed to replicate it." He moved close enough to cup the ghost's face in his hand. "I failed with you," he whispered, "and I'm sorry. But I won't fail with anyone else. I can save everyone here. I can save all the humans in this world."

"No one needs saving," Aika whispered through me.

"I succeeded, after all these years."

"No, you didn't. Mel and Kenshin are still standing because of a force _my_ Emerson understood, but you never did."

The image smiled, and I saw her as a girl a little older than myself adoringly gazing at this young 16 year old genius in a sunlit garden of colorful carnations. The smile that creased his lips and spread to shine in his blue eyes felt warm and safe. The sensed that encompassed me was worm and golden. I wanted it to remain forever.

I felt her longing for that past. I didn't understand it, but I'd felt something close to it before with with Kenshin. 

Hot tears streamed down my face in thick rivulets even as she spoke calmly with my voice, and her memories played. "You used to smile and laugh, and you loved to hear me play the piano. I would always play your favorite song --Hypno K.K.-- because it made you happy. You told jokes, and sent me leafed presents just to see my surprise. You held me when I cried when the emotion I was learning to control became too much. We visited other towns together, and you tried to cook at my parents house sometimes. I would laugh whenever you burned something as simple as toast. I cherished the small, fleeting moments with you in summer during the fireworks, or in winter building snowmen. You were part of my family and the most important part of my life. This town was my Wonderland, I was your Alice, and you were my Hatter. I didn't want to be anywhere without you." The glint of a translucent tear slipped from her eye as I uttered words she'd wanted to say for most of my life. "I loved you."

His fingers drifted through the ghost, but he betrayed no form of returned feelings or regret.

"Let me go. I want to return to zero with my Emerson."

"No. I can't just give up."

Acceptance passed across her face and through me. The person she knew was truly gone, and this was a stranger.

Her image evaporated in the remaining stormy drizzle.

He let his hand fall to his side and stared emotionless at the place where she'd been. Slowly, he eased out a breath and tightened his jaw. "You never did understand, you stupid girl. I did all of this...because I loved you."

We watched with the retreating bass of the storm as our only companion.

I felt Kenshin catch me as I became lightheaded and overcome with fatigue.

This town, these experiments, her past, the torment and torture, even the love she held for the man who destroyed her sanity, ...all of it... was her nightmare.

This was the nightmare of Aika.

\--------------- 

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((art of Ao Haru Ride by EvanRank. Please go follow and support the artist on Deviantart.))


	15. Emerson's Revenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: They're not out of the woods yet. Emerson twists the truth in an act of revenge.

 

The rain stopped.

Kenshin dropped to his knees from the added weight pressing into his freshly opened wounds from the climb. Still, he refused to let Cecelia fall.

Her eyes fluttered open. The deep brown color of Aika’s influence stained her irises. She lolled her head to the side to stare past Emerson to something we couldn't see. It made her tremble. Perhaps Aika remained to haunt her vision; A constant reminder of betrayal, torture, madness, failed love, and death.

Emerson's shoulders bounced lightly as a soft laugh grew and steadily morphed into a black shadow of psychotic happiness. "Well, I knew she was here, but I hadn't expected that. Well played, Aika."

It hit me like a shovel to a rock. This scarred man had the blood of who knew how many humans on his hands from the cutting sword of his god complex. He may not have personally taken a weapon to them that we knew of, but their macabre fate bound around him like dirty mummy rags.

My feet glued to the dirt, and my body ran cold as the frost of reality set in. I glanced to Mel with her arms wrapped around herself in a frail form of comfort. She didn't blink. She simply stared at the man before us. We both thought the same thing: 

Emerson could kill without ever laying a hand on his victim. And he didn't care.

Black clouds continued to swirl and rumble over the town, but the worst of the supercell storm had passed.

We four, however, were approaching the apex of our own.

Emerson cracked his neck. “Why do you all look so shocked?” He spread his arms. “I kept telling you she was here the whole time, didn’t I?”

Any anger Mel felt pulled into me like being sucked up by a tornado. As far as I knew, it was all mine. My vision took on a red haze. "You," I breathed, clenching my fists hard enough for my nails to crease my palm. “You feel nothing. You hold no remorse for what you’ve done.” I snarled behind clenched teeth. 

“Why would I? Every advancement I made went to the very reason you can even feel a damn thing. Were it not for me, you'd be an apathetic walking pile of trash.”

“Like you?”

Cecelia whimpered, trying to stay awake and to make sense of what was happening to her, but she was scared, and I knew that emotion surged through to Kenshin.

His mirth disappeared like it never existed. “Enough chit chat.  I’ll be taking her home, now.” He moved closer.

"Stay away from her!" Kenshin's outburst exploded around us from his sheer emotional intensity. “One more step, and I'll—!“

“You'll what? Send me to the Overthere with that ax of yours?” He mocked. “Go ahead. I dare you. Give me a reason, Kenshin!”

Kenshin's chest rose and fell rapidly from the rage rushing through him as he gently lowered Cecelia to the ground and stood. He put most of his weight on his left leg. He withdrew the golden leaf from his pocket and deleafed it with a thought so the ax held off to the side. 

“Kenshin, stop!” Mel grabbed her friend's arm and the handle of the ax with the other. “Don't, please!”

Kenshin's muscles tensed. 

“Cecelia needs you.”

Slowly, as though in pain from resisting his will, he lowered his arm. Mel pulled the tool from his hand and leafed it, stuffing it into her pocket before he could change his mind.

"You bastard!" I flew forward and plowed my fist toward Emerson's face. It was an impulsive move headed by emotion alone, and I knew that, but I didn't care. I charged him for two reasons; the first pushed from the back of my traumatized mind –to keep Kenshin from doing something stupid, and the second was to do something stupid myself. I wanted him to pay.

Emerson smacked my hand away like it was a fly. His cold, ice panther eyes flicked to me. "Bad move, kid." He came at me swinging faster than I could react, and rammed his fist into my gut. Air exploded from my lungs. I gasped and dropped to my hands and knees.  

"I'm older than you, faster, and have eight years of surviving in this town under my skin. You live a life of fishing and shaking trees, and pretending to be the mayor of a town that babysits you. You died. Your body's not back to normal yet, and you can feel it. You don't stand a chance, you feckless little turd."

I forced myself back to my feet. “She's gone,” I coughed. “Let her go.”

“Death is only the end if you assume the story is about you.” 

“Oh good. You speak 'fortune cookie' now. You can get a job at T.I.Y. writing greeting cards and bad poetry.”

“I saw it on a shirt someone wore here a couple years back. It struck a chord with me. I kept the shirt.” Though he said nothing about the poor soul who'd worn it first. Emerson tilted his head down to Cecelia. “I'm done playing around. We're going home.” He grabbed her arm to haul her to her feet when Kenshin's fist smashed into his face out of the blue. 

His head snapped to the right from the impact. He reeled and stumbled near a patch of dead bamboo, cupping his throbbing cheek. 

Kenshin glared him down. “I said, stay away from her.” 

Emerson spit blood that spotted the dead grass. “You want to play dirty? Fine. You'll get your wish.” This wasn't the first time he'd been attacked. Taking out three emotionally unstable kids should be a piece of cake. He studied them, noticing Mel's bloody lip, and his eyes narrowed at Taki. That little piss destroyed his computer. It would take months to scavenge and steal the parts he'd need to build a new one. He'd get his revenge on all of them. 

Gruff, deep voices from the animals scouting the cliff called out in the distance, interrupting his thoughts. “Over there! I see them!” 

His lip curled up in a mischievous plot. Acting fast, he snapped a dry bamboo shoot from its base, charged me, and pressed the shoot into my right palm. 

I had enough time to inhale before he rammed the makeshift bamboo knife into his own side. It slipped between bone and muscle. His shriek of pain ripped through my ear. 

Mel screamed where I couldn't. 

He gripped my jacket as he slid to the ground, clutching the bamboo around the wound.  
“They're here!” Emerson cried. “They attacked me! Help!”

His blood spilled over my hand when he let me go. I stared at it, and him, paralyzed in shock.

He turned those wicked blue eyes up to me above a sneer of mastery in his own ingenuity. “Welcome to Aika Village forever,” he gasped through the pain, “Mayor Taki.” 

I couldn't think. My eyes flicked from him to the congealing dark red liquid coating my hand in a nightmarish glove, to the animals running up the hill toward us. I wanted to shout that this wasn't my fault, but until I could be proven innocent, Emerson's blood was all the evidence Fang would need to imprison me here for the rest of my life. 

Mel's voice leaked through the drumming pulse pounding in my ears. “Taki, come on!” She grabbed my left hand and pulled me back. “Taki. Taki!”

I snapped out of it when she pressed her palm to my face. My shock and fear mixed with hers. I didn't know what belonged to whom anymore. The emotions between us became a ball that we shared. That soft warmth that saved me at the waterfall surfaced again, so I drew on it to regain my senses. It was more powerful than the rest.

I knew what she wanted me to do. Kenshin's wounds inhibited him from carrying Cecelia for any decent distance at a fast pace. Frantically, I wiped my hand off on the edge of my jacket, though it felt like the blood had leaked into my pores. Even if I scraped off every layer of skin to muscle and bone, I wondered if I'd ever feel clean again. 

I forced my legs to work, and hurried to scoop up the small mayor. Cecelia wrapped her arm around the back of my neck. “Get to the bridge,” I managed. Regardless of how I felt, I was still a Mayor, and I had to remain a leader. 

“The tarantulas...” Cecelia mumbled weakly.

“We'll worry about that when we get there.” I grit my teeth. Emerson may have forced my hand, but it was still my hand that pushed the bamboo into his ribs. Unlike Mel who defended herself against Sarah, he made mine a deliberate act of violence. He framed me. 

We took off into the tenebrous night of Aika Village with Mel helping Kenshin, and myself carrying an increasingly weakening ten year old girl. 

* * * *

The alligator, elephant, and gorilla reached the cliff edge moments later. Octavian split off after us, leaving Emerson to his capable companions. 

The alligator grabbed both of the human's hands to Emerson's strained cry of pain, while the gorilla removed the dirty smock and checked the pockets. Emerson stayed on his knees and gave in to a search for any leaves. The animals turned up lint, and the t.v. remote used for the gyroid. They tossed it aside. Satisfied, the alligator let him go. 

“They got Sarah,” Emerson grunted in agony as he got to his feet, pressing his palm to his bloody side.  He turned helpless, sad eyes toward the guards of the village. “They pushed her off the cliff, then came after me. Taki, Mel, and Kenshin... They're...they're too dangerous.” He hissed against the throbbing pain, “but Cecelia is innocent. You have to stop them.”

The elephant glared him down and leaned close. “Why should I trust you, Human?”

Emerson stared fearlessly into the animal's eyes. “Because Sarah's body on the sand is proof. And why would I stab myself, Axel? That would be pretty stupid, wouldn't it.” He banked on this animal's egotistical and dense personality streak. “You make life here crap for me as it is.”

Axel pushed his trunk into the small human's face. “You have a track record.”

“Yeah, I'm a frickin' genius. Comes with the territory,” He grunted and pulled out the bamboo, screaming and panting. The weapon dropped to the ground. “I don't care what you do to me later, but just rescue Cecelia. Get her away from them. Please. She's just a kid. I know even you're not that heartless.”

The elephant grumbled. “Louie, go check on Sarah. Del, you're with me.” The large blue elephant walked away with the navy-scaled alligator beside him. “They can't leave the village, so go home, Emerson. Stay out of this. I'll get fang to send Sue E. to patch you up. If I see you out of your house—“

“You'll shove me into lock-down, I know.” He hated the thought of being dropped into the old reset center again, but that suffering would be worth it for his revenge. “Just shut up, you oversized zit, and go after them.”

He hunched over in pain and watched the animals turn a corner by a cluster of dead trees into the village out of sight. 

Finally alone, Emerson stood straight and cracked a Cheshire grin. Everything was going according to his hastily crafted plan. Without wasting time, he folded up the smock, tied it around his torso to slow the bleeding, and hurried off toward the bridge.

* * * *

Whatever Aika was doing to her, she needed to stop, or there would be nothing left of the spunky little girl we'd met on the train.  

She breathed as though an anvil sat on her chest. “Go back.” 

“What?”

“... Return...to...”

“Stay with me, Cecelia. Hold on, ok? Stay awake.” We ran down an empty dirt street lit by two or three scant, obligatory lights placed with as much care as one gives a grasshopper in summer. 

The nearest light flickered, at least we could see. “Looks like we might have power.” 

It heard me. In that second, the bulb partly shielded by the rusty lampshade exploded, sending sparks spewing to the dirt. Mel and Kenshin covered their heads. I turned my back to keep Cecelia out of the spark shower. It illuminated the street for a moment before plunging us into darkness. The only reason we could even see was thanks to the flashes of lightning that still hadn't given up their atmospheric dance. I frowned. “Ok, this town just hates us.”

“Aika,” Cecelia struggled to speak. 

“She did that?” Mel struggled to hold her fear at bay. 

Not only were we the foxes in the hunts written of in archaic stories of old animal feuds, but we were also tailed by the spirit of a murdered human tagged to our friend. This was officially the most demented game of Hide and Seek I've ever played. And I was pretty sure I wouldn't wind up with a furniture item after this.

“There it is!” Kenshin let go of Mel as a support and limped ahead. 

The rain-darkened stone of the old bridge arched over the roaring rapids; a gray rainbow leading into the jaws of horror bull-guarding our freedom. 

It seemed like days ago that I'd last laid eyes on this structure. Now, it shone with the rarity of a golden stag beetle. For the first time in an eternity, I felt hope. 

Darkness existed beyond the bridge. There were no light fixtures in the congested woods across the river. The old overgrown forest created a thick cloak of inky shadows that easily concealed the threats skittering within, waiting for a careless human to cross into their territory. 

Brush and twigs snapped to my right. I quickly turned to see what caused it out of curiosity and fear of survival...and wished I hadn't. 

Octavian's dark red body rushed up a side path between badly pruned shrubbery. Six of his arms carried him swiftly across the ground, while the other two reached for us. 

My chest knotted with ice and my heart raced like a terrified rabbit. _He found me... he found me. No_! Cecelia's weight suddenly meant nothing. I tightened my arms around her and splashed through the mud in a crazed need to escape a possible second death. Just exactly what kind of karma was I paying off tonight?

I heard Mel's scream from my panic, zapped through the link. “Run!”

We hurried across the slick stone to the other side. I paused at the tree line long enough to look back. 

Emerson cut in front of the octopus. His black boots slapped against the wet stones as he slid to a halt in the center of the bridge. Across the river meant death. Cecelia would be attacked by tarantulas within seconds. He completely ignored Octavian's shouted commands to stop and barreled into the gnarled woods. Now was as good a time as any for an escape, revenge, and to get back his Aika. His hand pressed against his side. “You're not taking her out of this village, do you hear me?! I will take her back!” His curse permeated the air. 

Rather than argue, I ran into the maw of the dark forest. We didn't have the luxury of time, now. In fact, time became our enemy. We'd crossed into the mutant tarantulas' home grounds. Any room for respite evaporated. We weren't at our best like we were fresh off the train, which meant our odds of getting out of this alive were as slim as shaking a bagworm from a tree. If there was any luck left in my ripped, blood-stained jacket, I needed to use it now.

A new sprinkle of rain started to fall. Its silver darts pattered the leaves. 

Kenshin buckled and braced himself against a rock near a clearing. He blinked into the trees, gasped, and suddenly shouted, “Wait! Wait! Stop! Guys, stop!” 

“What!” I panted. I scanned every possible angle for attackers of both the eight legged and bipedal kind. “Why are you stopping?! Stopping is bad!”

Kenshin hobbled off to the right. We followed him into the clearing, to an area I recognized a lifetime ago, and the large white rectangle on its side on the ground. 

“ _Seriously?_ ” Mel's jaw dropped. “Tarantulas, _and_ Emerson, _and_ the entire village could be on our butts in seconds, and you want to pick this up _now_?!”

“I said I wanted to come back for it.” 

“Fine, fine, whatever,” my eyes scanned behind us in urgency. “Just leaf it and let's go!” 

Kenshin placed his right palm against the large white refrigerator, and in a thought, it transformed into a green leaf. Juicy spider bits plopped to the ground. He closed his fingers around it and pocketed the item. “I can store a ton of food in this.  I love food!  I never knew how much I loved food until now! It's so delicious.” 

“I can't believe he's thinking about food. Kenshin! Priorities!” I held back the urge to vomit, and reminded myself that I was carrying Cecelia. She didn't need to wake up to a lap full of barf.

Mel shivered. “Whatever keeps him focused on not peeing his pants in fear, he can think about whatever he wants. He's lucky. He has Cecelia to keep him grounded. Even if she is...the way she is, it still seems to be working.”

I'd forgotten that Mel didn't know about the link I created to save her. My gazed dropped to Cecelia. She hadn't stopped staring at Kenshin, as though keeping him in sight settled her. 

Unfortunately, our bad luck persisted. The sound of the rain hid the quick beats of multiple pairs of legs against the moist sod. The darkness filled with their sound, birthing terrifying images of sharp fangs, dripping poison, and hundreds of eyes and hideously jointed arachnid legs. 

Adrenaline shot through my body, and I feared I actually would throw up. 

Tarantulas scurried in from all directions. They pushed us to the middle of the clearing.

Cecelia let out a small cry of fear. I set her down before my arms failed me. She scooted back toward Kenshin, who dropped to one knee to put his arm around her and help her to her feet. The four of us pressed together in a tight huddle with our backs facing in. 

“We're gonna die,” Mel whimpered. 

I stared into the personification of nightmares octocreeping toward us. My mind blanked. My heart raced, and I knew this was it. 

We'd overstayed our welcome.

\---------------  
TBC  
\---------------


	16. Return to Zero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle for their lives reaches a breaking point. Nothing is more dangerous than a man with nothing left to lose.

 

**CHAPTER 16: Return to Zero**

_We're gonna die._

“Run... run...run!” Mel's fevered terror of arachnids eclipsed all else.

Her words may as well have come out of my mouth, because the power behind them became mine. I wanted to follow that order with all of my being, but past experience was enough to keep me rooted in place.

Skeletal forks of lightning crawled across the sky, illuminating the 360 degree creeping horde closing in. The spiders were taking their time –like normal tarantulas. Only instead of meandering in random directions, they knew their targets, and they weren't in a hurry... as long as we didn't run.

“Get away!” Cecelia picked up a rock and attempted to stand, but wavered. Aika's presence continued to weaken her.

I barely registered the soft rush of energy from a deleafing command as Kenshin returned the silver bug net to its normal physical state and gripped it with both hands. Mel managed enough coherency to deleaf the golden ax and held it at her guard.

Beady multi-eyes locked the four of us in their sights. I saw the murky shift of color in the ochre stripes of hair on the tarantulas' bodies, and noticed every glistening fang that I imagined to be dripping with poison. The eerie sound of their feet 'taptaptap'ing against the soggy dirt and leaves drilled into my ears. Beyond the dozens that I could make out in our small ring of pathetic light, hundreds more lived behind them. They filled these woods in an army of morphing terror.

Our hope was a joke. We'd lost the war the moment we set foot on the north side of the bridge. Healthy or not, we never stood a chance.

The petrichor of the earth—one of my favorite smells—took on the moist scent of decay. It made sense that I would notice something so insignificant in my last moments.

“I'm sorry,” Mel whimpered.

“For what?” I managed.

“I don't know. A-aren't you supposed to say stuff like that before you...”

I swallowed hard as I felt the word 'die' from her more than heard it. "I don't know. I didn't get a chance to last time." I remembered what it was like to have a force try to forever silence me. I didn't want to go through it again --and being poisoned and torn apart by spiders seemed far worse than drowning. Not to mention impossible to return from.

Cecelia let out a shrill shriek as one of the giant spiders lunged for her, picking her out as the most vulnerable human.

It met with a 'crack!' from Kenshin's net handle and tumbled across the ground.

He panted hard, trembling, but holding strong. 

Cecelia dropped the rock, grabbed him by the forearms, and looked up into the eyes. The fear within them was nearly palpable. “Kenshin, look at me. I need you to get really, really mad and do the thing like you did at Re-Tail.”

He shook his head violently from side to side. “No... No, I can't. T-that's worse,” he stumbled over the words. “I-I almost hurt you last time. I can't be that out of control. I don't want to feel that again.”

“I know you don't. I don't want you to, either, but you have to.” The emotions shared between them that settled his own, shone in her wide, dark eyes. “Do the thing with the sword.” 

Mel knew what the little girl was asking him to do, and it killed her inside. This gentle man was a sea of calm in her life, and Cecelia was asking him to become a storm.

“You can do it.” She pushed the bug net against his chest. “Go nuts.”

Kenshin's palms rubbed against the handle as he pursed his lips, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. If it's what he had to do to protect us, then he'd do it. “Help me.” he whispered.

She nodded and sniffled. She would use the link to keep him from going completely ballistic and taking us out with the spiders. In that kind of rage-state, he may not recognize someone friendly. 

They closed in, giving us ten feet of clearance... nine feet...

“Mel, I...” I began. “I'm sorry I couldn't show you Leafside. It's beautiful in Autumn.”

Eight feet...

Her voice lilted higher in a sniffle. She failed at stopping her tears. “I'm sorry I couldn't make you pancakes.”

“...What?”

Seven feet...

“I love pancakes! I wanna share my mom's recipe with you, but our town is a cherry town and not an apple town and it needs apples.”

Six feet...

“My town is an apple town.” My heart pounded hard enough to ache. I was going to die a second time, and we were talking about a breakfast we wouldn't see. “Lucky, huh?”

Five feet...

She sobbed, tears running down her cheeks. “I wanna go to Leafside and eat apple pancakes with you!” 

Four feet...

“I love pancakes!” I blurted out.

Three feet...

“I love—!” That golden sense from before speared through the fear of impending death, and I suddenly realized what it was. I turned my head, catching the edge of her short brown hair in my peripheral. The words caught in my throat. “...I love—“

She turned slightly toward me, taking her eyes off the spiders for a second. She felt that, and understood it. I know she did. 

It was a second too long. 

One of the closest tarantulas leaped into the air right for her.

Within her scream of terror, and swing of her ax in defense, Kenshin's net handle collided with the spider across its middle faster than we could blink. The ax barely missed his arm, but he didn't seem to notice or care. The spider's legs wrapped around itself as it slammed into the dirt.

The energy around him changed. It morphed to a deep red auric maelstrom billowing around him. His eyes snapped open, and the man we knew was gone. What replaced him was rage; rage at the wounds inflicted on him, rage at the torture we'd suffered, at the betrayal of being framed, and rage at the torment that killed Aika, forcing her spirit to cling to a little girl he cared for.

He let out a battle cry and spun the net with practiced precision, striking spider after spider in mid air. He became a ghost, frozen in multiple poses through the lightning strikes that burned the scene into our eyes, changing in the darkness and freezing again. He was a warrior, a samurai, and the net became an extension of his arm. He moved like he was the rain wrapped around a tornado, spinning and ducking, slashing across, upward, back, and around again. He wove a fatal dance that would leave pieces of spiders behind if he were wielding a real katana. Kenshin became a blur of silver hair, jeans, and a blood-stained gray raglan shirt.

He was amazing.

Mel screamed and swung the ax at the nearest spiders, catching one and slicing off its front legs. Blood spilled as it screeched and writhed on the ground. She wasn't left handed, and couldn't use her right because of the lightning burn, so her swings were awkward.

Cecelia shrieked when a spider crawled over its wounded comrade and pulled at her red shoe.

I kicked it away right into the path of my friend's epic attack. The spider's body made a sickening 'crunch'.

The sound of her cry jarred a memory loose. I couldn't believe I'd forgotten about the main reason why I risked bringing my friends across the bridge in the first place. I dug the whistle out from under my shirt, put the slim silver cylinder to my lips, and blew into it for a good four seconds. A pure, high-pitched tone exuded from the delicate instrument. It held within it a primal demand that we all shared; Get away from me!

The tone echoed off the rocks and trees, bouncing off the clouds and the darkness itself. Its sound wave pushed outward like an invisible shield around us.

The spiders hissed and wobbled in a disoriented mess.

I gripped the little whistle on its chain in my hand like it became its own rare golden tool. “Not a pointless side quest.” I chuckled and clutched it tightly, our saving grace. “Not a pointless side quest!”

Cecelia's voice quivered as her gaze turned up toward me. “That's Aika's. But...but how did you know?”

“Octavian let it slip before he threw me into the ocean.”

Mel's jaw slacked. “Where did you get it?”

“It's what I pulled from the time capsule. Lucky guess.”

“And you forgot you had it?!” she snapped. “We were about to be spider food!”

“And you were talking about pancakes! I wasn't—” I ducked a spider sailing over my head from Kenshin's whirlwind. “—thinking straight!”

“You said you love pancakes!”

“I do!”

“Then I'm gonna make you apple pancakes!”

“That sounds delicious!”

Mel leafed the ax and hunched forward. “Why am I yelling about this when all I want to do is cry?”

“It's—“ I bit my lip. I couldn't tell her about the link, and that we were both getting a double dose of what we're used to. Without that connection, her emotions would drive her insane. Aika's madness set it in when she questioned her reality. I didn't want that to happen to Mel. “We're all on edge. Stay calm and stay with me, ok?”

She nodded and pocketed the golden leaf.

Kenshin's bug-net-sword knocked another cluster of spiders into the trees amidst their stunned brethren.

“Kenshin!” Cecelia wrapped her arms around his waist. “Stop, you idiot! Calm down! We gotta run, now!”

His manic spree slowed from her touch. Rain slipped down his face to the little girl clinging to him. That sense pushed through their link to settle the rage. He pressed his palm to his forehead and let the bug net handle slack. He blinked as he returned to normal. “Cecelia.  I'm...I'm ok.”

She slipped to her knees, hanging her head. Her skin paled. Whatever strength she had forced into her limbs was gone. “Good. Let's go...please. I want to get away from here. I can still feel her.”

The spiders began to weave and meander, regaining their senses.

“It only allows us a few seconds?” Mel balked. “Taki, do it again!”

I blew on the whistle and watched the spiders return to a lethargic state. I agreed with Cecelia. We had no time. We needed to leave now. With this, we just might make it out of Aika Village with our lives.

Once more, this wood and this town fought my fragile hope. 

The silhouette of a pain-ridden man stumbled into view. His hand clamped over the wound in his side, which had bled through the smock fabric. “I don't believe it,” Emerson clenched his teeth. “I couldn't find that for years, but you managed to get your hands on the only ticket out of here in one night? I'm impressed. Thank you for finding it for me.”

I didn't believe he would be stupid enough to follow us into these woods without a plan to escape the tarantulas. I should have known better. When you hit that breaking point, nothing matters, not even your self preservation. He would do anything to get what he wanted, including ending our breath. 

There's nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing left to lose.

“Give it to me,” he rasped through haggard breaths. “Give it to me!”

“Run!” I grabbed Mel's hand and took off into the trees.

Kenshin leafed the bug net and scooped up Cecelia to follow. Despite his wounds, and his face contorting in pain, he carried her, limping as swiftly as possible.

“Return...,” Cecelia whispered, “...to zero.” She withdrew the small red bottle from her dress pocket and held it against her chest.

I glanced back just in time to see Kenshin had stopped. “What are you doing? Come on!” I urged, but he was staring tight lipped at Cecelia. He lowered her to the ground and took the bottle from her hand.

I hurried back to help her into a sitting position. “I'll carry her. Kenshin, we have to go, now. Kenshin!”

He heard me, but didn't care. His eyes set on the shadowed woods, scanning for the monster hunting us—for Emerson.

Mel took over assisting Cecelia. She brushed at the little girl's hair. “Stay awake, ok?” She turned her increased need to escape to her towns-mate. “Ken, have you lost it? We have to move!”

I put the whistle to my lips again, but knew if I used it, it would give away our position. Mist and rain hid the danger from sight. He could be anywhere.

The eerie soft voices of the storm whispering through the wood surrounded us. It wanted us to stay, it wanted to trap us within its branches and ensure the demons that lived beneath its gnarled canopy could feed on us. It wanted our bones to be picked clean and left behind in cold, lonely, darkness. This wood lived, and it was toying with us, making it so we couldn't find the train tracks. 

Or maybe my mind was so traumatized that I imagined the whole thing. Had Emerson's gyroid affected me as well? Was I the one going mad?

I felt Mel's hand rest between my shoulder blades and glanced behind me. She locked her unblinking gaze on me.

I swallowed. Of course I wasn't going mad. It was this place messing with my head. I had to pull it together for everyone, to be a Mayor and to lead my friends to safety. Taking the risk, I blew into the whistle again, buying us precious moments to escape, but telling the hunter exactly where the find his prey.

My paranoia bore fruit. 

Emerson burst through the brush, lunging for me. I barely had time to react before his hands snapped around my neck. He knocked me hard to the dirt.

“I'm taking her away from here,” his hot breath burned my skin. “And you will rot in my place!”

I pried at his hands and clawed at his face. He fought with the ardor of a bear backed by desperation and hate.

Emerson's hand clamped around the whistle, attempting to rip it off my neck. The chain dug into my skin, but didn't break.

A similar cry of rage shattered the air. I felt it wash through me before I saw its source, and in the next second, Mel jumped onto Emerson's back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tried to use her weight to pull him away. It worked, but not the way she had planned. It shifted his wrath from crushing me into the dirt to eliminating her threat.

He howled when her knee jabbed into the wound in his side. Emerson twisted enough to rip her away. He gripped her right hand hard, make her scream in agony, and threw her to the ground. She hit with an audible 'thud' and rolled. For a moment, she didn't move.

“Mel!”

Emerson's eyes flicked to me, and an unexpected slight smirk cracked his face. He saw my link with her written in my actions, her actions, my voice, and my stance. He'd come to recognize the signs of an empathic link over the years, and I was so new to it, he could read me like a book. “You want to know how deep this goes? Then suffer her death!”

He scooped up a rock from the ground and cambered back the hammer of his arm at Mel lying on her side.

She pushed herself to her knees and looked toward me, only to see the looming shadow of her assailant bearing down on her, forcing her to face her own mortality. She screamed and tried to push herself away.

That sound sliced through me like shards of glass. It hit me harder than any physical force. Adrenaline pumped through me, and I had two choices: to be a hero, or a coward. I screamed to fight the terror, to call my courage and shoved that fear to the back. I scrambled to my feet and charged him with my decision. Nothing mattered but stopping him anyway possible. I grabbed his arm, yanked him back, and threw my fist into his face. It connected. Pain shot through my knuckles as they collided with bone, but I pushed my will beyond it to ball up my fist for another shot. He dodged it. 

Something pulled at my pant leg. 

I looked back, and my face washed white in horror.

The spiders were freed of the whistle's spell and had gathered around us, skittering in from the depths of the woods. I was so engrossed in saving Mel from her murderer that I didn't even notice we'd run out of time. I stumbled back and kicked it away.

They were everywhere.

I managed another brief sound from the slim whistle again, enough to disorient them once more.

Kenshin took the cue and made Emerson his new target. For the second time tonight, he plowed his fist into the older man's jaw.

Emerson seemed prepared this time. He took the hit, spun, and came back around with the rock aimed to bash it against Kenshin's left elbow.

Kenshin blocked the attack to the side, grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and pulled Emerson closer. He kneed him in the gut, knocking the air from his lungs, and followed it with a strong uppercut to the man's chin.

The whole exchanged lasted maybe five seconds. Emerson squirmed on the ground, gasping for breath.

Without a word, Kenshin used that moment to his advantage and pinned him to the ground with his knee. He pulled out the cork from the bottle of red liquid with his teeth and gripped Emerson's jaw in his right hand.

Emerson struggled, but even injured, Kenshin's reflexes were faster.

He shoved the bottle open-end down into the others mouth and let the red liquid drain down his throat. 

I saw it in my friend's face; Kenshin took pleasure in enacting his revenge on the one who unleashed an inescapable torment of emotions inside him with the strength to rip apart his sanity, personality, and consciousness.

Frantic, Emerson thrashed, tossing the bottle aside. It bounced along the ground, still bearing a small amount of red elixir.

Kenshin quickly got off the beaten man and scooped up the bottle, corked it, and leafed it.

Emerson staggered to his feet. He coughed, laughed, and then suddenly hunched over clutching his stomach. The strained cry that forced from his vocal chords lashed through us like wire. The potion was changing something inside him, and he was fighting it.

He dropped to all fours and shoved his fingers down his throat, forcing himself to vomit. Globs of dark liquid and bile splattered the dirt.

I didn't want to watch, or wait to find out if the Reset potion worked. I gave the whistle another blow, buying us precious moments to get clear of the spider horde. I lifted Cecelia in my arms and stood. She felt heavier than before, like she wasn't trying to be strong anymore. Or she couldn't.

We tore through the trees away from the grim scene.

His screams melted into the woods behind us, becoming one with the darkness.

Shadows drifted like ghosts between the knobby oaks and scattered cedar trees. “We're near the tracks!” I shouted.

“How do you know?” Kenshin kept up with me.

“Because cedars can only grow on the upper portion of town,” Mel explained. 

And there it was, up ahead, rising from the mists like a silent bastion of a forgotten promise. I was never so happy to see an abandoned train before in my life.

We climbed over the wooden fence. I handed Cecelia off to Kenshin briefly so I could get over the barrier, then took charge of her again, and we bolted onto the tracks. Theoretically, we should be safe, but this town had thrown all known logic into the fire pit hours ago.

Our feet crunched the gravel between the oil-stained deep brown railroad ties as we raced along the side of the stalled cars. Our stuff was still inside, but I could care less. There was no way I was risking the lives of my friends for a backpack. I blew the whistle again, freezing the tarantulas gathered at the entrance of the tunnel.

The trunk of one tree became visible from the front of the train, but as we approached, I noticed the same three trees were still blocking the tracks as before when Kenshin and I first went to investigate. The animals were gone, and the tarantulas were swaying, stunned by the whistle tone like dead leaves ready to fall.

My mind jumped to the worst case scenario: the spiders devoured or dragged the animals away to eat later, and were waiting for us to add to their meal.

Hours had passed since we fled the train, and no one cleared this out yet. Which meant no one knew it was still a hazard.

Which also meant no one knew we were here, and been subjected to the terrors of Aika Village.

We scaled the trees carefully, but quickly. Kenshin helped me with Cecelia, taking her whenever I needed both hands. She would open her eyes occasionally, but couldn't do more than make small sounds. I jolted as a spider swayed drunkenly too close to my hand. The seconds ticked down until they would be freed of the effects of the tone.

“Hey!”

Emerson's voice called out to us from near the train. “Wait up!”

Mel froze, as did the two of us. He didn't sound angry, or frightened. He sounded calm, but in pain.

He stumbled up to the trees and started climbing over them, uncaring about the giant tarantulas speckling the rough bark. “I'm hurt pretty bad. I was going to the city, but don't know how I got here. Can you help me?”

My jaw slacked. It worked. The Reset potion Kenshin force down his throat had returned him to zero. Whatever 'zero state' was, it meant he'd lost all memory of us, and perhaps of his time in this village.

'Stay back!” Mel cried.

He paused. “I'm sorry, but staying on the ground is a bad idea. These spiders are chasing me.”

My eyes flicked up to see past him to the forest. My blood turned to ice.

Hundreds of tarantulas surged out of the forest onto the tracks in a shifting black amoebic mass. They crawled up the cars and across the top. The loud 'clicking' of their legs against the metal shell were deafening. 

Small flecks of light bobbed behind them in the far distance. I didn't know if they were lanterns, flashlights, or ghosts of the dead, and I didn't care.

“Go. GO!” I pushed.

We dropped to the other side in the dark tunnel where the tracks curved into the small mountain. It would be impossible to see, but we had to risk escaping into the pitch black of hopelessness and fear to reach the light. I blew the whistle again. 

Sudden movement to my left nearly made me drop Cecelia as I stumbled on the railroad ties.

The diaphanous ghost of Aika formed beside me, lit only by the energy she stole from Cecelia. She reached out for her, but I stepped back. 

“Get away from her. Leave her alone!”

Aika stared at me. Her lips parted slightly, and Cecelia spoke. 

“Put her down.” 

I held on tightly in defiance. But I didn't expect the little girl herself to let out a shrill scream and writhe in my arms. I was forced to set her to her feet or she'd fall. She immediately silenced her banshee wailing and stood straight, and tall, and with purpose. “Cecelia?...”

“It's not Cecelia. It's Aika,” Kenshin breathed. “I can feel it through her.”

Mel looked confused and frightened from the stoic little girl to her friend, then to the spirit. 

Aika's slim astral form drifted forward until she stood face to face with Emerson as he joined us on the other side of the fallen trees. Her apparition illuminated his pale blue irises, and the lichtenberg scar snaking down his face.

He didn't reveal recognition or fear or anger. He was a blank slate. “Are you a ghost?”

“Emerson,” Cecelia spoke for her as Aika extended a hand. 

“Who are you?”

Aika's spirit smiled, and for the first time, we all heard her light, lilting laugh outside of Cecelia's voice. “My Emerson. I've missed you so much.”

“Why am I hurt? What happened to me? Why do I...want to cry? Tell me where I am. Please.”

Aika looked past him to the tarantulas awakening from their daze, and the bobbing lights quickly approaching from behind. She settled her eyes on him again and brushed her fingers against his chest.  “Do you trust me?”

He nodded slowly. 

Aika's smile disappeared. In a second, she shoved her hand through his chest to his core.

He gasped, wide eyed and lurching forward. His mouth gaped in surprised, then softened to tears pooling at the edges of his eyes in recognition. “Aika.” She'd awakened her memory and the link between them that had never disappeared, but nothing else. “My Alice. My beautiful Alice.”

She backed up, nodded. “Let's go home, Emerson.” and in a rush of air, faded out of sight.

“No.” He reached for her. “No, come back. Come back, Aika! Where am I?! Why am I here?! Aika! Help me!”

Spiders started ambling one by one over the logs. I put the whistle to my lips once more, but Cecelia's small hand clasped around mine to stop me. She shook her head. She was going to let this happen.

No, not her. … Aika.

Tears slipped down her cheeks as she turned, keeping her hand around mine, and watched the most dangerous human in the world with sadness and loss. “Goodbye, Emerson.”

We watched helplessly as a black waterfall of spiders cascaded over the trees in a torrent that obscured them entirely, and swarmed around him.

Emerson started to run away, but they were on him in a heartbeat. 

They bit him, one after the other after the other, climbing up his clothes, piercing his wound, crawling up his back and latching onto his arms. His cries of pain and regained fear crushed our ears in the claustrophobic tunnel. He flailed, trapped in their multitude. In seconds, they covered him in a blanket of writhing, jointed legs, taking him to the ground screaming for help. We heard the tearing of cloth amid the wails of a terrified, confused man clawing at the gravel between the tracks.

Mel hugged Kenshin, who wrapped his arms around her as she buried her face in his shirt.

I couldn't look away or blink, but I couldn't tell if the spiders were ripping him to shreds or not. There were too many of them. Emerson completely encapsulated within the mass of their hairy bodies. If the reset potion worked, that meant he didn't remember anything about his plan of synchronial engagement, the gyroids, Dr. Shrunk, or the atrocities he'd committed against other humans over the past 8 years. 

This scene would stay with us for the rest of our lives.

I couldn't let this go on any longer. I tore my hand from Cecelia's grip and blew a strong stream of air into the whistle, releasing a clear, flawless tone reflecting off the tunnel rocks. The arachnids fell prey to the sound.

Cecelia dropped to the ground. Before I could move, Kenshin was over her in a flash and lifting her into his arms. She wrapped her arm around his neck and rested her head against his chest. She needed him more than any of us. 

I forced my legs to work and took Mel's hand. The three of us turned our backs on the mound of spiders over Emerson's body and escaped into the northern curving snake path of the tracks that swallowed us up into the mountain.

I heard a rustle behind me, and caught a flicker of yellow light—the same as before—but didn't look back. Whatever was happening, if we stayed, we'd become part of it. We finally had a clear path to freedom, and I was taking it.

I used the whistle every minute to make sure we wouldn't be followed or attacked. They kept their distance as nothing but an eerie, bone-chilling sound in the dark –the personification of a nightmare. I panted hard, but didn't want to stop to catch my breath. We were far slower than average, limping and forcing ourselves along in pitch blackness.

We were almost there. Just a bit further, and we'd be safe. Just a little further...just a little more...

We struggled through for what felt like an hour herded by the horror of a tunnel of spiders. No one said a word. We kept each other within earshot. I briefly wondered about Kenshin, but that was silenced by the sense that he was next to Mel. I didn't need to see her to know she was close. A perk of the link meant that I couldn't lose track of her. I felt reassured and comforted by it. Even now, we remained each others lifelines.

The first sliver of pale light to encroach into the tunnel made my heart soar.

I'd never run out into an early cloudy dawn with as much hunger as I had now. We burst free of the tunnel into the fresh open air of the retreating storm passing over rolling green hills supporting a forest speckled with color. 

A fork in the tracks greeted us up ahead between the hills bearing a sensor box atop a pole ready to receive a signal from the engineer to switch to north, or south. Whoever built it failed to add town names in each direction. There would be no need. The engineers had a list on a map in the train to follow.

We were not so privileged.

Desperate for anything, we hiked up the hill to our left heading south as soon as the tracks gave us the opportunity. The dirt was still muddy from the rain, but after all we'd been through, mud was nothing. I don't know when the spiders stopped following us, but I didn't want to linger to find out.

Tired, beaten, bloody, hungry, and exhausted, we trudged into a forest of oaks and cedars bearing green leaves, and a few trees that started to turn shades of rust and auburn. Light from the misty dawn filtered in thin rays through the leaves. 

The tall stalks parted before us, and when we finally broke the warm barrier of morning, what greeted us beneath a slate gray sky was a vision of mercy.

Mounds of thick emerald grass, and fields of colorful wild flowers rolled in soft waves to the horizon amid small, sapphire ponds; a painter's landscape of dreams. It stretched far out to the surrounding hills, and supported groves of fruit trees amid homes and a small town pouring down out of sight into the valley. Rays of crepuscular sunlight pierced their spears through the pregnant clouds, illuminating the brilliant palate of colors blanketing the hills in the north, and shining on the shades of vibrant blue-green sparkling along a distant lazy river. Its stark contrast to the dark thunderheads above the verdant trees of the forest took my breath away. The lucidity was so intense, that I had to assure myself I wasn’t dreaming. 

It was an amalgamation of simple, natural beauty.

I had never seen anything so incredible before in my entire life. Overwhelmed, I cried. Next to me, Mel's tears mirrored my own. We were both consumed by the visual promise of a glorious salvation.

“Hana Valley,” Mel smiled. “We made it. We actually made it.”

“It's real,” I mumbled. 

We stepped forward into a field of blue, purple, and white pansies, and daisies rustled by the storm winds. 

Mel dropped wearily in a bed of clovers.

I could make out the small forms of animals and a couple of humans running out of the distant town. My legs finally gave out and I settle next to her. She rested her head on my shoulder and leaned against me. I relaxed so we supported each other. “I want to sleep for a week.”

“I'm ok with that.” Her eyes closed to a satisfied sigh of relief. “I'm ok with not moving from this spot ever again.”

Cecelia smiled at the striking, charming view. “It's so pretty,” she whispered.“Look at all the flowers, Kenshin. I told you it would be amazing.” Her eyes welled up with tears. “I'm so happy,”

Kenshin balanced himself to take in the view, completely engrossed and smiling broadly. “You were right. There are hybrids everywhere. The town is full of them. You can take some home like you wanted. We made it, Cecelia.” He turned a bright smile down to her.

She remained smiling at the flowers fluttering their petals in the breeze.

“Cecelia?” Kenshin fell to his knees in the soft grass. “Cecelia!” He cupped his hand behind her neck and hugged her close.

The dirty doll in the red dress slid from her limp fingers to land discarded among the delicate flora. Her head lolled lethargically back.

“Wake up. We made it, Cecelia, we're here.” Tears spilled from his eyes. “Cecelia!”

“No,” Mel gasped. “Oh, no.”

His chest rose and fell in desperation as he shouted a curse into the valley, his emotions overcoming any calm or logic. “She's done enough for you! What more do you want?!” Kenshin's clawed fingers quivered through his hair. The link remained. He held onto it tightly, refusing to give up on her. “Come on, Cecelia, stay with me. You're my little sister now, so I'm not going to let you go. Wake up, Cecelia. Wake up.”

Was this our payment for survival? This was cruel, far too cruel. 

This couldn't be real. I couldn't let myself accept that our horrifying experiences followed us to this tranquil valley and locked us in an circle of tragedy. 

I forced what little energy I had left into my legs, stood, and raised my sore arms into the air to flag down the animals. “Help! Help, please...help...” My voice failed me, but I had another way. The whistle would save us one more time. I pushed its song into the open air, begging within its tone to save us. It rang into the wind. I exhaled into the silver whistle over and over even after the animals spotted us and hurried our way. 

My will caved in to the demands of my tortured and exhausted body. When the energy to stand finally left me and my knees hit the soft grass, Mel slipped the whistle from my fingers and took my place. I leaned against her for strength and stared out at the sea of wildflowers as I listened to the fluttering warble of the whistle.

Long moments passed before the animals and humans of Hana Valley reached us –or what was left of us.

In one night, we four became a family bound by our shared events. I wouldn't know until later if our four...became three.

\-------------------  
TBC  
\-------------------  



	17. The Thread Between Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hana Valley offers its peace to the weary survivors, but recovery will take time. Mel finds out she's been linked to Taki, and Taki learns the consequences of locking the thread as severely as he did.

**CHAPTER 17: The Thread Between us**

Soft beams of warm, morning sunlight spread across the white wood-board floor of Hana Valley's small community clinic. The animals had given us clean, comfortable clothes, food, and the chance to scrub away the crusted blood and caked dirt, which we gratefully accepted.

A kind deer—Deirdre, she said her name was—dressed our wounds with help from a blue-furred cat named Rosie. The cat purred while she worked to keep us calm from the sharp pain of the medicine and new wrappings. My arm speckled with blisters, but I had to admit, the fern pattern gloving half of it from the lightning strike looked pretty. Despite the tenderness, I relaxed. Perhaps Rosie knew her skill would come in handy in treating traumatized patients.

They didn't ask us many questions –just the basics from a medical standpoint—and when they were finished with the initial care, they left us alone to decompress.

That was an hour ago.

We sat on freshly made, average-sized hospital beds in the homey recovery room in silence. The only sound came from the soft hum of a ceiling fan in the center of the room. Its blades oscillated in a lazy circle, shifting the air around the quiet atmosphere.

A song bird chirped outside the windows. It, and the potted plants tucked into the corners gave the baby-blue room a sense of serenity. It reminded me of a summer sea, though the part of me that held onto that comfort fought with a feeling of anxiety demanding to leave this place. I tugged my shock blanket over my shoulders and curled up into my knees. I focused on how the ocean always soothed me, and willed that negative emotion to leave me alone.

Taki hunched over in the middle of his given bed to my right, staring at the whistle in his palm. He glanced over at me, grimaced, and muttered, "Sorry."

I blinked curiously, though I had no idea what he was apologizing for. I did notice he was clutching the fabric of his cotton pants. His dirty, shredded jacket draped over a chair up against the wall. It was yesterday's lucky item, and held nothing more than bad memories, now. "For what?"

"You're trying to recover. I'm not helping."

I pursed my lips and looked down at my bandaged arm. "You can't do anything about what that monster did to me and Kenshin," the night's trauma thundered through my body, and every freed emotion swam with it. I offered him a sad smile, though we both knew it was forced. "But, I feel better just knowing you're here."

Taki's mouth opened slightly, like he wanted to say something, but closed it.

I felt a sense of acceptance, and somehow knew he understood, and also that he felt the same way. Confusion set it. How could I be so sure about someone elses feelings? It didn't make sense, but I couldn't dispute the truth, either.

I looked across to the other bed against the wall, to the ones who truly needed help. Kenshin sat with his feet hanging over the side, and his head clutched in his hands. Strands of hair fell over his curled fingers. His body tensed as he willed himself to remain frozen in place. If he moved, he would lose control, and the emotions tearing him apart would explode. He shivered through clenched teeth and locked his gaze on the floor. I knew his inner strength and deep caring for Cecelia was all that kept him together. Despite his condition, he refused to leave her.

Cecelia herself lay motionless in the bed beneath a soft, blue blanket tucked under her chin and smoothed across her shoulders like caring arms.

She was the first one the animals checked over at the demands of the three of us, though we were ready to collapse. I don't remember who the other animals and humans were who helped get us to town –I barely remembered the trip—but I will never forget the doe that examined our small friend and gave us the news;

Cecelia was alive, but completely unresponsive.

The small Mayor of Sugarpine, the victim of Aika's spirit, lay in a coma, unable to see the sunlight of a new day.

If she awoke, would she even be the same Cecelia we'd come to know? I wanted to wake her, hug her, hug Kenshin and Taki, and tell them everything would be ok. But I couldn't even lie to myself.

We wouldn't be fine. Not ever again.

The door leading to the main room slid open.

My heart jumped into my throat to a rabbit's heartbeat. Taki reacted the same way.

Kenshin's head snapped up to stare pointed daggers at the intruder. "You don't just walk in on someone like that. What the hell is wrong with you?" he growled.

"I'm sorry if I startled you. I brought the doctor. She's the best in the area." Deirdre stepped in followed by a tall, smiling, pink octopus carrying a tray of mugs in two of her arms, and wearing a long white polka dot dress and lab coat that skirted the floor. A human woman in a nurse's outfit followed her. The woman looked to be in her early 30's. She waited for her companions to enter, and closed the door.

"I'm Dr. Marina. It's nice to meet you," the octopus began in a disarming tone. "I understand you've been through a terrible ordeal. I just want to make sure that—"

"Ah!" Taki hit the floor and scrambled to the back of the room by a plant, pressing himself against the wall with his eyes zeroed in on the octopus. "Get away from me!" His chest bounced from heavy hyperventilation.

I covered my head and screamed into the blanket, shivering. That octopus stabbed memories of Octavian and Emerson through my minds eye.

"Please, Mel, Taki. It's all right. You're both safe," Marina tried her best to console us. "I'm not going to hurt you."

My voice trembled as I spoke for my friend who'd become too terror-stricken for words, "An octopus threw him into the ocean and he can't swim! He drowned!"

She covered her mouth with a suckered tentacle. "Oh my."

"Please, get out! Just get out!"

"I see," Marina understood that the human boy was still raw, and would harbor fear of her kind for a while until his experience faded to a memory. At this moment, all he knew was that he was trapped in a room with an octopus blocking the door. He would need help to learn to trust octopi again. "Forgive me. We didn't know."

She handed the tray off to the woman. "Perhaps it is best in this case if another human tends to these poor dears. I'll be out in the lobby if you need me, but I know you can handle this. You're almost as good as I am, Sprout."

"I told you I don't like it when you call me that," the woman smirked.

"And that's why I call you that." Marina hushed in all seriousness, "It's been less than 24 hours. Make sure you check him thoroughly for any lingering affects of hypoxia, especially since all were in close proximity to a lightning bolt. It's ill advised for them to leave Hana Valley for a least a few days. I'll inform their towns."

"Yes, Doctor."

She patted the woman on the shoulder in confidence and left the room.

The woman exhaled and took in the scene of her frightened people. She moved over to me and handed me a mug.

I accepted with trembling hands. "I'm sorry."

"It's all right, hun, don't worry. Take a few slow breaths."

I did as I was told, and forced my instinctual panic to subside. I didn't know it, but Taki reacted to my efforts. As Emerson had noted, and as Dr. Marina suspected, his body hadn't recovered from experiencing death, however brief.

She set Kenshin's on the small side table next to Cecelia's bed, then moved carefully to the back of the room. She placed the tray on a nearby empty bed. "The doctor's gone. You can calm down now, Taki."

He mumbled an apology.

"No harm done. I'm going to make sure you're all right. Will you let me?"

He nodded. "I'm fine."

"I'm sure you are." She gently checked his breathing, and heartbeat with a stethoscope from the pocket in her uniform. The metal diode lingered on his chest for a moment as she listened, her brow knitting with curiosity. She pulled the stethoscope from her ears and pocketed the equipment. "Mel said you drowned?"

He replied with a quick sound of confirmation.

"How long ago?"

"Past midnight. I have no idea. The whole night blurred together."

She frowned, concerned. "Mel?" She glanced to me. "How long was he unconscious?"

"Um, I don't know," I continued to force that previous panic aside and now felt relatively calm. "Five minutes, maybe? I couldn't feel a pulse when Kenshin brought him ashore." The terrifying moment replayed in my head, turning my limbs cold.

Taki shivered.

"Who revived him?" She asked.

I pursed my lips, then finally whispered, "I did."

The nurse blinked. "You performed CPR?

I nodded. The knowledge exploded in my head as soon as I saw him. I went through the motions, counted the pacing, and moved as if the skill was fresh. I knew I'd recently learned it, but couldn't remember where or why. I knew it my soul that it wasn't due to being in the medical profession. Like Kenshin and his skill with the sword, I don't know where that knowledge came from.

"Quick thinking." She turned her attention back to a confused and shocked Taki. "She breathed life back into you."

His voice rasped. "Then, I really was..."

She nodded. "In those conditions, five minutes is long enough to be considered clinically dead. You at least owe her dinner for bringing you back to life."

Taki stared at her, then to me, slack jawed. That meant the pain he'd felt in the dream on the rooftop when Aika told him to wake up were the chest compressions to restart his heart.

"Is something else wrong with him?" I asked, feeling like I should ask his question for him.

"No, and that's what's curious." She removed a small pen light from her pocket this time. "You're fine. Your heart beat is perfect. All of your vitals are completely normal. That shouldn't happen after the trauma your body went through. In fact, standing or behaving normally as you have since we found you should be strenuous. Had Mel not said anything, I wouldn't believe that you'd drowned."

"How should he be acting?" I asked.

"Yeah," he spoke up. "Should I be worried?"

She tapped the pen light against his cheek. "Your heart beat should have erratic palpitations until the electrical impulses calm down – that could even take a couple of days. Your breathing should be slightly strained because your lungs would be sore, you'd be lethargic, and you'd have a mild headache from oxygen deprivation to your brain. Your reflexes would be a little slower, too. Everything would be sore. Coming back from the dead isn't something to take lightly. I'd almost think something else was controlling the damaged parts of your body."

We all stared at her.

She then quickly checked his eyes. Satisfied for now, she handed him the cup, which he took. "You should sit down before you fall down," she let a little humor sieve through to ease him.

He shuffled back to his bed.

"This a special tea we brew in this valley. Apollo is the only one who loves staying up late to gather herbs that become more potent after dark. Our local botanist is something of a genius, albeit a little nettlesome."

I clutched the cup of warm tea in my hands and watched the steam drift away from the sage-green liquid. I took a few sips. The tea was delicious.

"I've had my fill of geniuses," Taki grumbled, though he cupped his mug for the warmth the same way.

Her soft smile weakened to one of sympathy. "So I heard." She tucked a strand of shoulder length curly nutmeg-brown hair behind her ear, and gave the tray to Deirdre. "I'm Maggie. Welcome to my town."

"You're the Mayor? I thought you were a nurse," I said.

"Technically, I'm both. Will and Meira –they're about your age—, sort of share the mayoral duties so I can attend medical school in the city. I came home early to deal with the tarantula issue. Let me guess. You came here for the antidote, right?"

We nodded.

"I thought so. People have been showing up for the past couple of weeks. Fang called my secretary last night to inform us of the stalled train, and that you four were caught in Aika Village. He'd called in his roster to the Nooks in the city, but your names weren't listed beyond the standard TPC registration. You four have done nothing to warrant any kind imprisonment. You were all given clean bills of health the day you moved to your towns. He was attempting to find you."

"Yeah," Kenshin rasped between clenched teeth. "So he could lock us up there forever."

She shook her head. "No. So he could get you out of there. That place isn't safe for normal people."

"We know," we said in unison.

Her smile disappeared completely. "I'm sorry for what you went through. I truly am."

"Are you?" Kenshin snapped. A well of anger washed over his face. "Do you have any idea what happened to us?!"

"Kenshin..." I began.

He spoke over me. "Cecelia's in a coma because of Aika, Mel and I are still being tortured, and Taki, he..." He didn't want to say that his friend died and he'd pulled his limp body out of the ocean.

"She's here to help us, Ken. Take it easy." I felt angry for him, for what he'd experienced, but we were away from all that now. We had to recover.

She sat on the end of Taki's bed and regarded the three of us. "Then tell me everything. We have time."

I rested my head against my knees and was relieved when she took the half empty cup from my hands. "You take this one, Taki. My head's still a mess. I can't." The overwhelming emotions spilled from my eyes again and my shoulders shook. They pounded through my core in a battle to subvert control. Taki had suffered the most out of all of us –he'd lost his life—, so why was I reacting like his experiences belonged to me on top of my own? I didn't understand.

I heard the shifting of mattress springs and felt weight compress the cushion behind me. A moment later, Taki's arms wrapped around me from behind. That golden light spread through me again, and I relaxed. The emotions quieted to a whisper. I exhaled and reached up to clutch his hand in my left.

A flash of knowledge lit in Maggie's blue eyes. Though she waited for our explanation, I had the sense that our physicality told her more than our words ever could. "You met Emerson, didn't you."

"'Met' is not strong enough a word," Taki stated.

"You know about Emerson?" I asked.

"Of course I do. We're the first town outside of Aika Village. Palette is about an hour west. If he ever got out, he'd have to come through here. We have a detection system in place along our border. Anyone who sets foot on our side trips a sensor that instantly alerts our police station. Trains don't trigger it. Our chief of police checks the cameras depending on which sensor was hit, and appropriate measures are taken. We've only had false trips before –no one from Aika, thankfully—but that's how we knew you'd entered our valley."

That knowledge reaffirmed just how dangerous Emerson was. "Is he...did the spiders..."

She shook her head. "He's alive. He's a blank slate back in Aika Village, and in intensive care."

"He used Mel and Kenshin as his puppets," Taki kept his voice low. "Cecelia and I did the only thing we could to save them."

"I see." She set the mug on the side table and took a moment to study our faces. She then rested her hand on my knee and moved over to Cecelia to gently open one of her eyes to examine it. Next, she knelt in front of Kenshin. "I won't hurt you. Just stay calm. You're safe here. I just need to take a quick look." She reached up carefully to rest her finger pads against his cheek, and studied his face. Her gaze slid down to where his left hand gripped Cecelia's. "You know she's alive, don't you."

He swallowed hard and nodded.

"You don't have to say anything." She stood and addressed Deirdre. "Contact Dr. Shrunk and tell him to come to the clinic as soon as he can. We have a scenario 7. Please let Dr. Marina know."

Deirdre picked up the tray. "Of course, Mayor." She left without another word.

Is something wrong?" Taki asked.

"I think I might know why you're still standing." Maggie changed our wound dressings that needed it, and left us with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. We'll get you fixed up. You'll be able to go home before you know it. Try to get some rest, ok? You're completely safe here."

"Ok." Fatigue began to cloak me in its warmth. I rested back against Taki, and the next thing I knew, I was sound asleep.

* * * *

The familiar resonance of Taki's voice urged me out of the darkness.

"Will Cecelia be all right?"

I cracked my eyes slightly. In the vignette of light, I could make out his form sitting on his own bed next to me with his back turned and resting his elbows on his knees.

Another voice joined in. "Time will tell, which is why we haven't risked separating them yet." A short, pink-skinned axolotl wearing a gaudy waist coat and jacket stood almost completely obscured in the sideways angle of my world. "Her energy is extremely low –like she's been bled dry. I believe she is using her link to Kenshin to remain alive until she can hold her own."

Aika took everything from Cecelia, and left her with nothing. I felt sympathy for what she'd suffered, that she'd died because of it, but I still hated her for this.

Taki rubbed his left arm, feeling the same disdain for the spirit. "So she'll wake up?" He combated that feeling with hope lacing his voice.

Dr. Shrunk nodded. "I believe so, yes."

"What about Kenshin? What's going to happen to him? Emerson's gyroids revived all of his emotions at once. Won't he go insane without that link?"

Something in Taki's question hinted that he wanted to know for his own purposes.

"Your friend is taking well to the reset treatment. He'll be fine in a couple of hours."

"Reset treatment?" Taki straightened to a rush of panic. "No, you can't! He'll lose everything! We saw it with Emerson!"

"Oh, no, my boy, no, no, no, it's nothing that extreme. The reset potion created for Aika was developed specifically for the severity of her case. She was beyond repair. Her only hope was to lose everything and start over. All that's left of that potion is what Kenshin salvaged in the bottle."

"So what'll happen to him?"

"It'll rebuild the barrier the Awaken potion and the gyroids dissolved. He'll retain all of his memories, but he'll need to unlock his emotions one by one all over again. I've perfected this treatment, so no harm will come to him."

"This isn't the first time this happened?"

"Hah! I wish." he chuckled. I heard the 'slap' of his bare feet against the wooden floor as he walked across the room to perform a quick checkup on an sedated Kenshin. "You aren't the first humans I've had to treat –albeit through different circumstances—, and you certainly won't be the last."

Taki sighed in relief, and I felt its warmth leak through my muscles. "What about Mel?"

"I can help her," Dr. Shrunk's voice took on a more serious, personal tone as he bore his gaze directly through Taki's walls of silence, "but you have to let go."

Taki ran his hands through his hair. A pulse of need swept through me.

_I don't want to._

_I don't want to_ , I mimicked.

My heart began to pound. What were they going to do to me?  _No, leave me alone._

"I understand how difficult this is for you, and I'm not downplaying the seriousness of this situation." He paused. "You created a link with her to settle her emotions, didn't you."

His eyes widened slightly in shock. "How did—"

"It would have to be you, because a person in her state wouldn't have the mental focus to pull it off, even if they could control it."

_A link? Like between Kenshin and Cecelia? When did he-_ my eyes widened slightly when the memory of the moment my mind settled down flashed through my head. Taki had held onto me tightly even though I was crying like a baby. I felt so pathetic, but...calmed, like I'd been wrapped in a warm blanket.  _The cave. I've been linked to him since then?_

Taki's fingers curled into the fabric. That secret was out. "You weren't there," he defended, "You didn't see what she was going through, how she was being tortured by her own mind. I had to try." The memory of that moment in the cave surged forward, followed by the fight afterward. "Sarah tried to break it. She would have destroyed her. I could feel her breaking apart. I was on the cliff face. There was no way I'd get down in time to stop Sarah, so I made the link stronger to keep her out."

"You locked the threads between you."

"Locked?" Aika had mentioned doing the same to Kenshin after they'd made it up the cliff. He wasn't sure what that meant before, and at the time, he was too preoccupied with the situation to give it much thought.

He nodded. "I can see it in your eyes."

"What are you talking about?"

Dr. Shrunk walked to the back and pulled open a drawer. He removed a small rectangular hand mirror and when he returned to the bedside, he held it out to Taki. "Take a look."

Curious, Taki accepted it. "Well, I look like hell."

"Look closer."

He brought the small mirror nearer to his face in studious focus and peered intently at his reflection. "...!" A sharp gasp left him and he zeroed in on his eyes. The dark blue of his iris contained a faint green blurry ring around its outside edge. "What the..."

"If you look at her eyes, you'll find the same to be true for her, but with your color. The same is true for Cecelia and Kenshin. This is what's known as a Empathic Life Resonance Link Scenario 7—or more simply termed, a Heart Link."

Taki's jaw slacked as he stared unblinking at his reflection. I could barely see it from my position, but I believed him. I shared that stunned confusion.

"Whether on purpose or not, you went far deeper than a normal link," Dr. Shrunk began.

"I didn't know that would happen. I didn't know about any of this until last night. I just had to do something. I just...reacted," his voice trembled audibly.

"And now you can't tell which emotion is yours, and which is hers."

Taki's shoulders tensed and he turned slightly toward me, unblinking, as if looking for that color.

"I'll help you out, here. It's both."

"Both?"

"It's not like a normal link where you can simply tell what the other is feeling and who it belongs to. A scenario 7 means your emotions are shared, now. They've merged. Picture it like a big ball of yarn you both have the ends to. If she's afraid, you're afraid. If you're happy, she's happy. Even if your reactions to—let's say fear or anger—differ, the emotion is exactly the same. This creates the side effect of a physical change: The two linked will gain a soft ring of the other person's eye color around the outside of their own irises. Their pulse will also synchronize as an effect of their emotions being exactly the same. That's where this particular rare scenario gets its name-the Heart Link." He paused. "Maggie told me you'd drowned, but your heart beat is perfect, and you show no signs of trauma in that respect." He nodded toward me. "That's why. Your own pulse should be a mess right now. Its beat is even, because it's not yours. It's hers. She's keeping you stabilized even now. On an empathic level, you're the same person."

_The same person..._ I exhaled, surprised at the revelation. That explained why I suddenly became terrified of the ocean I loved. It wasn't my fear or my experience. It was his.  _I'm...stabilizing him? Taki..._

I still couldn't move or reply. Everything the gyroid's dissonant sound freed within me swirled like oil in water in a jar. I pictured the jar filled with colors. Confusion—yellow/blue—pushed the others outward to become the dominant shade.  _All of this...everything that I feel...is Taki...and me?_

"If the threads remain locked to this severity, eventually, you will completely lose the ability to feel independently. And if one of you were to lose their breath...well, you saw what happened to Emerson and Aika. That's what makes this level of the link so dangerous."

"How many scenarios are there?"

"10 that we know of."

"What's a scenario 10?"

"...You don't want to know."

"She can hear everything," he whispered.

"Of course she can. She's only sedated, not unconscious. It's necessary for the treatment to work with as little discomfort as possible."

He continued to watch me. I kept him in sight, not wanting to look away. His face became my world. Gratefulness cascaded through me so strongly, it pooled in a small tear at the corner of my eye. It merged with that golden sense that remained in my heart. The tear slipped to the soft cotton pillow. I understood, now. Taki of Leafside had saved my life.

Dr. Shrunk's words echoed around me. "We can't administer treatment if the link remains, or it'll affect you as well. I won't lie: breaking that link will be an extremely strenuous experience for both of you."

"What if she—"

"She'll be fine." The axolotl rested his hand on Taki's arm. "Trust me. It's you I'm worried about once you break it. You'll have to deal with your recovering body on your own, but this must be done to save her."

_I can't…_

_I can't…_

"The longer you wait, the harder it will be for you to let go."

His jaw tightened.

I blinked slowly, feeling the sedative working once more.  _Taki_... _If I'm helping you, don't break it. Please. You'll suffer._ My fingers twitched as I forced my arm to reach out for him.

He took my hand.

_Taki..._

What happened next tumbled me into a cold, hollow darkness. I exhaled around the emptiness inside me, like someone had pulled a cork out of my center and let all the water in that jar pour out to leave me as a half-empty container. One color remained: a beautiful red/gold with a single thread around it; a remnant of the link that saved me. I held onto it for my life. Together in that moment, within that color just before I fell unconscious, lived a whispered agreement between us.

_I don't want to be alone._

\-------------------

TBC

\-------------------


	18. The Price of Knowledge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taki severs his link to Mel so she can undergo Reset treatment. He then confronts Dr. Shrunk about the mysterious blue potion, but is not prepared for the answers that follow.

**'Snap!'**

The link broke like a thunderclap in my head, as though I'd heard all of the synapses in my brain fire at once. I fell back to my pillow and covered my eyes. I hurt even more now than I did from drowning. "It's done," my voice rasped. Water leaked past the barrier of my arm. I felt like I'd just willingly carved out my center with a metal melon baller. "Whatever you need to do, just freakin' do it already before I change my mind."

I heard the shuffling of fabric, then the click of plastic followed by a few seconds of silence. I risked a look in time to see him pocket an empty syringe.

"I'm proud of you, son," he patted my hand with his clammy palm. "It takes a lot of courage to sever a link that strong. You did the right thing. Your eye color will return to normal in an hour. It's going to be a little rough for you for a while, so try to get some rest. I'll have Mayor Maggie bring you something to help." He moved quietly to the door. It slid closed softly behind him.

I lay there for a moment watching the lazy rotation of the ceiling fan.  _Did I really do the right thing?_  I rolled onto my right side. A frigid cold flushed through my veins, but I knew if I looked at her, I'd be too tempted to find her thread again. Her emotions were being reset back to zero right now. If I messed with this process, it could really screw things up.

My eyes scrunched shut and I shivered a breath. I finally noticed the flutter of abnormal heart rhythm. This symptom was leftover from my resuscitation, and from the roach hallucination. I locked our threads. Our emotions ripped from each of us to coalesce into one shared mess without our even knowing about it and that synced our pulse as well –the Heart Link. Mine was too erratic, so the link took hers and pushed its beat into me, stabilizing my own freshly revived, damaged organ like a separate set of hands assisting its function. That's how she remained in control of her emotions, and why I felt like I didn't have to try to maintain the connection, or that I wanted to collapse. I thought I was holding her together, but apparently she was doing the same for me. The odds of my being able to make it out of that village in the condition I am now were worse than the odds we'd defeated.

A rabbit scampered around behind my ribs, and my teeth grit against the uncomfortable sensation. The mayor was right. My whole body ached, and breathing became more of a chore. Damn. So this is what it really feels like to come back to life. Separated from that critical assistance now, all I could do was endure it and wait it out.

A thin red thread within a golden light thrummed warmly in my chest. If this was all that remained of my link to her, all that I was allowed to keep, then nothing in this world would force me to let it go.

I blinked at the wall dyed a pale yellow in this too-loud silence. This didn't feel like the real world, but here I was with the people most important to me, free, healing, and safe.  _It's over_ , I thought.  _It's finally over._

I lay on my side with my arm under the pillow and studied the calming artwork hung next to a medicine cabinet; it was of the girl in the orange headband. The Wistful Painting. "Fake," I mouthed. Her headband should be blue.

Something still bothered me-and it wasn't the painting.

I sat up and took in the quiet room. My three friends lay unconscious. I was the only one left, and although it felt like someone had speared me through with an icicle, and all I wanted to do was to curl up in a ball, one more thing needed to be done. This was my only chance.

I slid out of bed and hurried through the lobby with tunnel vision, because I knew somewhere in that room lurked the octopus with her pristine white coat, and eight arms of terror. I burst out the front door and down the short steps to the sidewalk, my bare feet padding against the cool stone path. "Dr. Shrunk."

He turned. "You should be resting after what you went through. Go back inside."

"I need answers."

"I've told you everything about the link. Be careful if you decide to use it again."

I blinked. "You're not going to forbid me?"

"Why would I? It's your gift. As long as you're cognizant of the consequences of your actions, you can do whatever you like. You're in far worse condition now than you were when you came in. The link is no longer holding you together."

I shook my head. "It's not about that." I followed him. "It's about the potions. What's the blue one for?"

He stopped. "You found it?"

"Mel found it in a house we were kept in. We know that red returns you to zero, and green unlocks what's hidden, but blue reveals an unreachable path... or something." I tried to remember exactly what Aika had written in the letter. My quote seemed to freeze the short doctor. "What does that mean?"

"You found her letter." He looked up at me and tucked his hands in his trouser pockets. "The blue potion is known as the Shield potion. It has a specific purpose that won't do you any good here. It tastes like blueberries in honey, and that's about it. I suggest you hand it over to Mayor Maggie and not think of it again. You've gone through enough, boy. Let this one go." He started walking away to end the conversation.

I wouldn't let him. "Does it have something to do with the city of frozen humans?"

That got him. He didn't say a word, but his silence resonated loud and clear.

I held the suspense. "I saw it. And so did Mel. And if I'm right, after Emerson forced his experiments on Kenshin, so did he."

"This is a line of questioning you don't want to go down right now, Taki."

He'd taken on more of a threatening tone, but it was nothing compared to the lifetime of horror shoved into one night. "I have to know. Is that place real?"

"Trust me. You don't want this answer."

"Trust you? I just found out that we can link our emotions with another person, and was told we aren't aware of this on purpose, which means we're being lied to. What else are we being lied to about?"

Two bunnies walking down the path interrupted their conversation to stare up at the sudden outburst from the tall human staring down the axolotl.

The feathery gills on the side of his head twitched. "Keep your voice down. Not every animal knows about this." He pulled me by the hand up onto a small grassy knoll surrounded by blue pansies in a park adjacent to the clinic. The top of his head reached my chest. "There's a very good reason why no human is told about that ability unless they ask, and you experienced it with Mel."

"Does it have something to do with the void?"

A cool morning breeze brushed by. "Did Emerson mention that?" he sounded somber.

I nodded.

A heavy sigh left him, and he resembled a deflated pink balloon. He'd come prepared for this scenario. "If I answer your questions, you have to swear to trust my judgment." His finger poked my stomach in emphasis. "If I see that you can't handle it, I will reset you back to the point where I left the clinic. You aren't the first one to ask me, so I assure you I can, and will do this."

"I thought the reset potion only set your emotions to Zero."

"That's not the only one that's been developed."

My lips formed a thin line. "And if I don't agree?"

"Then I walk away and go home to work on my comedy act. I've been doing this for 15 years. I had to implement this clause for a very good reason, Taki. You have a right to know, but knowledge comes at a price. It's your decision to pay it or leave it."

He was a genius at turning this around on me. Regardless, I wouldn't be able to continue if these questions swirled in my head forever. Wondering 'what if' promised countless restless nights. I hesitated, then nodded.

"This won't be easy to hear."

"I have to know."

Dr. shrunk tugged on his waistcoat and extended his hand. "Give me your word that you will trust my judgment."

I wrapped my fingers around his small hand. "You have my word."

He took a deep breath, held, it, and glanced around. "Look at this place. This world is beautiful, isn't it? The fresh air, the flowers, the trees, even the bugs, and delicious, delicious fruit. Most folks in these towns look out for one another. We have our hardships and differences, as to be expected in a society, but all in all, animals and humans live and work together without too many problems. You agree, right?"

"Yeah." Home wasn't exactly a utopia, but we lived in a state of fluctuating cohesion.

"You must consider this your second life since you returned from drowning, same as Emerson survived being struck by lightning. But this isn't your second life, Taki." This time it was his turn to hold suspense for ransom. "It's your third."

"My third?" I thought of the engraving on Aika's grave plaque that read 'second life,' My ears were fully open as I waited for him to continue.

"The city of frozen people is real. It's one of thousands that reside in the void across the boundary between this world, and the Human world. You remember it, because that's where you're from. It's where all humans are from."

Shock slithered up from the soles of my feet to my head and all I could do was stare. "You mean...another reality?" I only managed this guess based on the number of science fiction movies I'd seen. "That's a little hard to believe."

He gave a single, curt nod. "I understand this is difficult to grasp, but it's the truth."

The longer he let this information bomb tick in my mind, the stronger that shock grew. "And the void?"

"The Void is what the Rovers call the pockets of frozen time swiss-cheesed all around that world."

"Wait...what?"

"The mission of a Rover is to pass through into that void and rescue any humans frozen in time with enough life activity to be revived. You, and every human you've met were lucky enough to be pulled successfully out of the void."

"Rescues," I breathed. "That's what Emerson called us. That's...what he meant?"

Dr. Shrunk brushed his hands across his gills. "Oh, this is never easy. I'd rather face a sour house in the comedy club armed with rotten vegetables."

The new knowledge was slowly sinking in. We few were rescued, and everyone I saw in that hallucination...no...memory, didn't hold enough life to warrant the effort of being saved. I thought of my mother and the way she'd smiled and told me we'd be all right. She must have been afraid of the void. My hands started to shake. "C-can we go back?"

"That's where the blue potion comes in. Drink that, and you can walk into the void for thirty minutes. Any longer, and you refreeze in time. There's so much temporal degradation within you now that it'll be impossible to revive you again without your brain turning to mush. It's...not a pretty sight. Aika asked about it, so Emerson took her against my wishes. She questioned her reality after that, and that's when her madness truly set in."

"How long have we been here?" Speech became harder for me, and I knew he could tell I'd started struggling.

"Our world has seen an extremely minute number of humans living here off and on for the past couple hundred years. We began saving humans from the void in 2002 after we realized there's something different about our reality that allows you to survive here. We discovered this quite by accident, actually. That is another story, altogether. The void left imprints on every rescued human to varying degrees. That's why your kind can create empathic links. We're not sure what causes it quite yet, but there are theories. Most humans can only create brief random connections. We found this to be beneficial, as it helps them to be more empathetic to other people. A few can control who they connect with—like Aika, and you. Even fewer can subvert the other's emotions in favor of their own, essentially controlling that person—like John. Congratulations. You're a rarity."

My mouth went dry.

"If you're wondering if that's how we found out about a Scenario 10, no. John got up to a scenario 9 at his most focused. Someone else outside of Aika Village was responsible for our knowledge of a scenario 10."

I swallowed hard. He'd referred to that person in the past tense, which meant whoever revealed the secret of a scenario level 10 was no longer around. I wondered... was that level of the link fatal?

Dr. Shrunk continued. "Reviving someone is a complex process that involves multiple steps and must be supervised by a Rover's team. What you and every human experienced as a result of this process is called Retrograde Amnesia-you lose memories of yourself and the people around you, but you retain aptitude to function in day to day life. Basic knowledge like math, early schooling, and early childhood details remain—small things people don't think twice about, but the rest of your past is fuzzy. That's why trying to recall your memories is like trying to see through severe fog. Your emotions, however, are blocked as a side effect of the awakening process. This was a blessing in disguise. It made it much easier for people to quickly accept their new life and coexist with animals."

"Coexist..." by this point, any reasonable questions were burning out of my brain faster than a lit match in a tube of pure oxygen. "Animals have always been around."

"Not in that reality. Humans evolved alone in that world. Animals evolved alone in this one."

"Then...why do I...?"

"Thinking that is part of the awakening process. Before we started rescuing humans, we took carefully orchestrated steps to ensure a smooth transition for both sides. Elements of the human world were integrated into ours slowly to give animals time to adjust as well -we'd already been adopting bits and pieces over the decades, so this wasn't a massive leap. Humans are fascinatingly inventive. Our language and leafing ability were imprinted on you to let you adjust smoothly into our society so you can read and write naturally in Animaleese. 'Zero Point' is the moment you wake up. You're given a town to go to, and asked basic questions by a Rover to start your second life. Everyone has a bit of a bumpy start, but we make it as easy as we can for you to acclimate."

I rubbed at my temples with both hands. "That's why Mel and I could read that letter."

"Mmhmm. Your native language is called English. That's also Mel's. Kenshin's is Japanese. As was Aika's. Cecelia's is French. This is all based on what literature—if any—is found with a rescued human. But it's only speculation until that human comes across their language in this world."

Octavian was right; Animaleese wasn't my language, but I would swear with absolute certainty that it was. I spoke in it, thought in it, wrote in it. This is the language of my second...no...third life. What else about me changed? My mind began tearing apart everything I knew. I pressed my palm to my forehead. I shouldn't have asked for this before I'd recovered. This was a mistake.

Dr. Shrunk cleared his throat. "You asked for answers, Taki. I'm giving them to you."

I wanted him to stop, but the aspect of my curiosity that needed to know the whole truth regardless of my physical and mental state sealed my mouth from letting me scream those words. Everything I knew about myself pitched uncontrolled in a maelstrom of confusion. "How..." I couldn't form the rest of the question.

"There's an deep-set, elaborate system in place here. Every single human to be revived has their details registered."

My eyes widened. "Like...tagged?"

He shook his head. "Oh no, no, no. We're animals, not barbarians. When Mayor Maggie told me you'd arrived, I looked up your files. You are Taki Kaname. Age at extraction: 10 years."

"10..." I muttered.

"Extraction point: Tokyo, Japan on a rooftop. Birthplace, San Francisco, California – North America –known thanks to a USAID family member identification card found with you. First town introduced to after Awakening: Maple Point, during the City Folk missions. Moved to Leafside five years ago at age 12. Became Mayor at age 13."

I mouthed the details after he said each one, trying to recall them and make them mine, but the only one that sounded familiar was the mention of Maple Point. I remembered a few details about that town. Mostly just the fond sense that I was happy there working for Nook's Crannies as a delivery boy. The town was out in the sticks.

The axolotl waited patiently for me to find enough voice and will to speak. "W-why can't we go back outside the void?"

"For two reasons: One, that world is in a state of extreme chaos. I'm not exaggerating. And two—the most salient reason—is that you're out of sync with that reality, or time, frequency now. The instant you set foot outside the void, … well, imagine a tuning fork struck at a high intensity and held up against a thin, fragile sheet of glass. The human world outside the void is the tuning fork. You...are the glass. Your frequency is the weaker one. You'd be ripped apart molecule by molecule. Nature abhors imbalance, Taki. It will take whatever measures necessary to ensure that balance. There's a much larger story to this that I won't get into now, but estimates so far show that 60 percent of that world's population is trapped in the void. If the humans on the other side can't recover, then the only members of your kind left will be the ones living here. With the data gathered over the past 15 years, their numbers will drop to a significantly small fraction before they pull up on the bell curve. Humans are incredibly resilient and adaptable, so I have faith that they won't let themselves become extinct."

My head filled with fog. I wasn't from here, this wasn't even my reality, and the person I spoke to on the phone and who mailed me presents may not even be my mother. Not only that, but the place I came from plunged into a dystopian world. "60 percent...? How...how many are here?"

"Approximately 3 percent. A majority of the people caught in the Void can't be revived."

"A-are... are we... endangered?"

His sudden light chuckle surprised me. I could hardly stay standing from this news, and he had the gall to laugh?

"You're a rare person to ask me that. And, uh, with the way things are now," his mirth died, "technically... yes. Humans are listed as an endangered species. We'll keep saving as many of you as we can, but that status won't change for a long time. Until it does, you're on a global protection list."

I dropped to my knees and let the motion pull me back to sit on my heels. "Emerson told the truth. Everything he said to us about our emotions, our lives here, and even where we came from was all true." I stared at the clinic and my friends sleeping peacefully inside.

"It is true that what we learned from his bond with Aika helped to perfect the science that allows humans to safely regain their emotions. I'll never deny that he was an integral part of the process. I chose him as my assistant, after all. Emerson was bright, dedicated, and passionate about our research. Without him, we wouldn't have come this far." Regret and sorrow mixed in his crestfallen gaze. "He was a good kid."

But no one believed him. His methods were insane, he was mad, and he'd killed after the lightning strike altered his personality. Before that incident, he was normal like me, or anyone else I knew. His end-game was horrific, and scarred us for life, but his initial plans held good intentions for humanity. He wanted us to remember where we were from, and possibly return. But we're out of sync with that world and can never go back. If it's in a state of chaos, would we even want to?

The city of frozen humans was real, and we were once statues among millions dotting the landscape locked in time.

"Taki?"

What do I do with this? Do I tell them? They have a right to know, just like I did. Mel, Kenshin, and Cecelia were in the dark about all of this. Would they ask the same questions when they woke up? How would they react? They'd gone through this, too, been caught in the Void, and abandoned as forever lost.

Breath left me in short, staccato pulses.

We were saved by animals who cared about us enough to develop and change their own world to adapt to us. They gave us the ability to leaf objects and make it a perfectly normal action. We have a new life here, friends, family, and the freedom to pursue our dreams and travel anywhere we want. This place is my home. We're not prisoners, we're just...rescues.

My complexion turned sallow and my limbs laden with the weight of this knowledge.

Was Emerson right all along? Or are we better off not knowing our history? What if the reason they don't outright tell us everything is because the lie—or the silence—isn't any better than the truth? Which was the true horror story; our night in Aika Village...or this?

"Son?"

The muscles of my neck ached as I forced my head to turn toward his voice.

He took one look at me, and huffed a soft, sad sigh. The rustle of fabric and the pop of plastic haunted me again.

I swallowed to wet my vocal chords. Air shuddered from my tired body in a silent answer to the axolotl doctor.

* * * *

Kenshin slept peacefully on his own bed next to Cecelia's. At least he wasn't in agony anymore. I watched him, wondering if he would be all right, and if his link to Cecelia remained.

"Mel, you should be resting," Maggie handed me another cup of tea.

I gave its contents a sidelong leer.

"The sedative was part of the pain killer Deirdre gave you earlier. This isn't drugged, I promise." She chuckled. "How are you feeling?"

"Better, but...weird." I clutched the cup. "I don't really feel anything. I know I should, but..."

"That's normal from the reset treatment. It'll come back on your own time."

The tea warmed me, but I still felt hollow. "Mayor Maggie?"

"Hm?"

"Have you ever heard someone so clearly, they could be standing right beside you, but aren't actually anywhere near you?"

"You mean like how you'd heard Aika's ghost?" Maggie heard the report from Deirdre when she'd brought the humans in and was told about what happened to Cecelia.

I shook my head. "When Sarah attacked me, I heard Taki like he was right next to me, but..." I cut that line of thinking off. He'd been on the cliff face too far up to reach me. I know that's when he locked our threads, but the rest made no logical sense, so there was no need to pursue it. "Nevermind. I was under a lot of stress, so it was probably nothing."

Maggie frowned slightly.

We both looked up as the door scraped open on its track.

I blinked at the figure of someone standing barefoot in the doorway. The small doctor followed him in and closed the door.

The longer I stared at him, the more I felt an auric warmth within me from that thin red thread, like hearing music that had a life of its own. I didn't have a name for this. It was inviting, comforting, buzzing, and complete. It was incredibly powerful. This person was someone precious to me. Someone from whom I didn't ever want to be apart. I clutched the fabric of my shirt in an automatic response to grasp this sudden feeling, make sense of it, and never let it go. It wrapped around me so tightly that I could only get out one name that flared to fill a hole left in my core.

"Taki?"

He shoved his hands in his pockets and returned a smile. "Hey, Mel. Glad to see you're up. Are you ok?"

I handed the cup to Maggie, who barely had time to play catch, and slipped out of bed. My feet took me toward him in a will of their own. I stopped a small distance away. "Uh huh. You?"

"I went for a walk."

"Barefoot?

He shrugged. "It's a habit. Dr. Shrunk said it wasn't a good idea and escorted me back."

"He had to walk you back in?" I blinked, trying to make sense of that logic. That light grew stronger with each second until it threatened to overwhelm me.

"That octopus is still out there. He's lucky he got me through the front door."

I leaned up slightly to look into his eyes. "There really is a green ring around your eyes."

"Dr. Shrunk said it would take an hour to return to normal."

"Are mine that way?"

He stared for a moment and smiled slightly. "Yeah. There's blue. It's pretty."

A small smile tugged at my lips.

He exhaled a ragged breath. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't get your permission before creating a link. I tried."

A strong sensation filled me so fast that my body couldn't contain it. It overflowed from the corners of my eyes, tracing paths down my cheeks. "I think in that circumstance, it's ok. I'm grateful to you. I..." The dam holding that emotion shattered. I reacted faster than I could think and hugged him tightly. I held on through a flood of tears that pulsed the light through every inch of my being.

He wrapped his arms around me. "Why are you crying?" but his own voice quivered. "We're safe, now."

"I don't know," I choked up, smiling and tightening my arms, "I can't help it."

He laughed softly. "I owe you dinner."

"Yeah," the smile remained even as I sniffled around my tears of happiness. "You do."

His voice lost all mirth, but the strength in his arms and the weight of gratitude in his embrace pulled me closer. He lowered his head to my shoulder and whispered, "I owe you my life."

I could feel him trembling slightly, his breathing uneven, and his heart beat unsteady. I wasn't linked to him anymore, so I held onto him tightly as though that could substitute. My voice carried so softly, I barely heard it myself. "And I owe you mine."

We both knew at that point, that there existed no way for either of us to repay the other.

Mayor Maggie set the cup on the table. "Hmm. Her first emotion returned already, and it's the best we could hope for."

"She's going to need it." Dr. Shrunk scratched his balding head. "I am a little envious, to be honest." He watched us remain in each others arms regaining what we lost, and making sense of what we found. "Love is an amazing feeling."

She hummed in reminiscence and a little nostalgia, then glanced over to the doctor. "Did he ask you?"

Dr. Shrunk removed two used needles from his waistcoat pocket and handed them over to the mayor for proper disposal. "It's better this way."

"A shame. I thought for sure he could hold it together. Maybe it's just bad timing."

"If he wants to, he can ask me again. They seldom do, but I always leave that option on the table. You did."

"I remember."

Dr. Shrunk could recall each person he spoke with. Some screamed that they didn't want this knowledge and made a mistake. Others sobbed, and others went on a heated rampage. This boy's voiceless reaction was one of the most pure, heart-wrenching, and honest pleas for help he'd received. The look in those sullen rain-colored eyes on an ashen complexion begging 'reset...please' would never leave him. Still, he had a feeling that he may see this young man again.

Maggie folded her arms. "Mel said something interesting just now. I think I may have been slightly wrong about the scenario level. It was a 7, but for a brief moment, it was an 8."

"Hm," he mused. "Are you sure?"

"She heard him."

"A Soul Link." The doctor sighed. "He's more unique than we thought."

"Should we keep him here for a while to keep an eye on him?" Maggie whispered.

He shook his head. "Not any longer than he needs to heal. These kids have been through enough. Let them live their lives." He smiled slightly. The prospect of observing an extremely rare human excited him. There was still a lot they needed to learn, but there were also lines Dr. Shrunk refused to cross ever again in the name of science. Still, seeing as he could count the number of humans like Taki that he'd met in 15 years on both hands, letting this boy disappear into the islands of their world wasn't an option. They would still observe him, they'd just do it from a distance. "Send a note to his secretary to report anything unusual to us, though."

"Chance of a remaining Presence link?"

"With these four? One hundred percent. I'll entrust that explanation and instruction to you."

She nodded in compliance. "And Kenshin?"

"I'll talk to him when he wakes up. He's just as unique as the Mayor of Leafside, if not more so in his own way."

Maggie smiled softly at the two holding each other like they'd found something precious. She wished them a peaceful life, and told them in her heart that she was glad they were saved from the Void. "Coffee at the Roost?" she offered. "My treat."

"How is it a treat when you get it for free?"

"Are you arguing against free coffee, old man?"

"You know I prefer fruit smoothies." He paused, "And don't call me old."

"Ok, grandpa."

"That's worse!" He walked with her out of the room. "Have I ever told you the joke my really funny college professor used to say? I laugh just thinking about it."

"And you never get through it either," Maggie snickered. They took their humor into the lobby and left me, Taki, Kenshin, and Cecelia to recover in peace.

I heard their conversation, but didn't care.

That comforting light brightened within me. Its radiance flowed out and I imagined it sparkling, twining with a light from him completely separate from the empathy link, and unbreakable. I stayed in his arms, letting the warmth of his presence wrap around me. My head rested against his shoulder. I cried and laughed simultaneously, happy that Taki refused to let go. And I swore I never would, either.

Not ever again.

* * * *

(Epilogue to follow.)


	19. Epilogue: A New Leaf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting back to life after Aika Village.

**EPILOGUE: A New Leaf** (soundtrack suggestion: Animal Crossing movie OST main theme).

October. Two months later...

_To Lord DorkMayor of the Far Distant Future (more like 3 weeks from now, because let's be honest-You dug this up thinking it's a pitfall);_

_The tarantula problem subsided back to normal within days of our escape from Aika Village. The black-leafed specimen Kenshin brought back helped the scientists of Hana Valley develop more antidote to distribute to all the affected towns, including mine, Seaside, and Sugarpine._

_Cecelia remained in the care of Hana Valley's medical team after we were sent home. Kenshin stayed with her for the first week after that at the request of Mayor Maggie and Dr. Shrunk. He was told to head home later when they felt it was safe, and assured him they would call if there were any changes to her condition. Residents of Sugarpine visit her regularly, as do I and Mel. After all, she's our little sister._

_Mel, Kenshin, and I keep in contact, sending emails, letters with leaves, and the odd phone call. Kenshin is slowly regaining his emotions back. I've come to expect a stoic serenity about his personality. That's just who he is. The last I heard, he was up to four emotions in his new joke book. Not bad for his snails pace._

_I received a call from him at the start of the month saying he'd accepted a part time job offer traveling the rails. He said he was told he had a unique potential that fit perfectly into the criteria of what the Rovers were looking for. I don't know who the Rovers are, but I do remember Fang mentioning them. Kenshin wouldn't answer my questions about it. All he would say is that it revolved around transporting delicate shipments. He accepted the offer as a chance to meet a lot of people and see the world._

_He confided in me that a thread of his link with Cecelia remained. Having that connection to her gave him comfort when he traveled -like she's always with him. As long as that exists, he has hope. I can empathize with him on a level no other human can touch. To be honest, his truth... is mine, too. Mel said he rarely comes home, but she understands why he spends his free time in Hana Valley. If anyone should be there when Cecelia finally wakes up, we want it to be him. Despite being reset, he retained a deep caring for her._

_Mel went home to her life as Seaside's landscape architect, and part time barista at her town's Roost cafe. She said she finally finished paying off her home loan, and immediately buried herself in more debt with a new secret storeroom. Nook's Homes introduced it when she'd ordered a fence remodel. I couldn't fault her for it. I fell into that same trap. That deal was too sweet to pass up, and it is pretty worth the 138,000 bells. Her emotions are gradually returning as well. She's up to six. The lightning scar on her arm faded slightly, so she mostly wears long sleeves. I told her the first time we met up in her town and had coffee with Mayor Kosei that I didn't mind if it didn't fade away. We visit each other occasionally. As it turns out, Seaside is only a half hour train ride from home. And I'm happy to say she made good on her promise of apple pancakes. I've honestly never tasted anything better._

_As for me, well..._

"Mayor Taki, you have a visitor," my secretary announced.

"Thanks, Isabelle. I'll just be a second."

_...getting back into life-as-usual hasn't been easy. I know I've changed since returning from Aika Village. Dying will do that to you, I guess. Oh, my villagers don't know about that part, so if you haven't told them by the time you read this,...don't. Cole won't remember anyway, so it's probably safe to spill the beans to him. I'll admit, I have nightmares, and sometimes I can't even sleep at all, so I walk around the village barefoot at night to think. Do I still do that? My villagers ask me if I'm all right, but I think they can tell. Olivia definitely can. She's always there for me, and I appreciate her for that. Mel said we were broken by what we went through, but because of those cracks, light can get in. I told her that sounded like something in a fortune cookie, and she hit me. But she has a point. I've been given a second life, and this time I'm not alone. I guess you can say I'm turning over a new leaf. Either way, it's good to be home._

_Signed, the Cracked Mayor of Wisdom, Taki._

_PS. I put extra bug spray in the basement cupboard by the washing machine. Just in case._

I finished signing my letter and folded it up. It seemed fitting to use the aviator stationary for this one, considering it will be traveling in time. I stole a quick moment to put my seal of approval on a new public works project for a bus stop when the loud 'fwump!' of a wad of fabric scattered my concentration like spilled poker chips on a waxed linoleum floor.

Mel dropped a folded up black and orange wetsuit onto my desk. Papers fluttered to the floor. I blinked in shock. "Mel? When did you get into town?"

"About an hour ago. I picked up some coffee at the cafe. I like the placement of it. It's got a beautiful view of a zen garden and the ocean in the distance. Your landscaper did a great job around the property," she smiled.

That smile and her presence always found a way to warm me. "That was me. Thanks. I'm happy to see you, but what are you doing here? You didn't call." I pointed at the bundle covering my paperwork. "And what's this?"

"It's a wet suit. And actually, I did call. I just didn't call you. I kinda made your secretary promise not to blab."

"Sorry, Mayor," my secretary grinned sheepishly. "Surprise."

I could never be mad at my assistant. The little pale-furred dog came up to chest height, worked hard, and had cute fluffy ears. Mayor Kosei's secretary owned the same name. Apparently 'Isabelle' was a popular girl's name for her breed. "You know you can get all the same sea creatures in your town's bay, right?"

"I'm not here to catch sea creatures, you nerd. I'm here to catch you."

I stared at her. "I don't get it."

"Put it on. We're going to the beach. You are going to learn how to swim," she picked it up and tossed it to me, "and I am going to teach you."

I caught it, scooting my chair back. "S-swim? I don't think that's a good idea."

"You haven't been able to complete your Water Gallery because you can't get the salt water creatures."

"I appreciate the gesture, but," I set the thick wetsuit down and scooted my chair in so I could put the public works project to the 'done' pile, "I don't want to set foot near the ocean again. Ever. Period. In any life, reality, or world. Did I mention 'ever?'"

"It'll be fine. We'll be in the shallows. I told you I'm a good swimmer. I know what I'm doing. And I've enlisted help from a swimming expert." She sobered up. "Besides, after what happened at Aika... I don't want you to go through that again. I don't want to lie awake at night anymore thinking that you might go on a midnight trip to Tortimer's island, and Cap'n is too caught up in one of his weird songs to notice that there's a storm, and then the seas get too rough to navigate, and you're tossed overboard, and--"

"That keeps you up at night?"

"Ever since I got the 'worry' emotion back... yeah." She sighed. "Sometimes the only way I can sleep is if I concentrate enough to know you're all right."

I didn't want to tell her 'me, too,' but...

Mayor Maggie explained to the three of us that the remnant link between me and Mel, and Kenshin and Cecelia was known as a 'Locked Presence Link', or a Scenario 2.  
She described it as such: It will not break no matter how far apart the two connected humans are. Emotions aren't exchanged or felt, but it lets the two focus on the 'light' of the other, so it feels like that person is always with them. It's a stronger form of a Scenario 1 'Presence Link' that's an “I know you're there,” with the added bonus of “I know you're all right” or “I know you're stressed.” Nothing more. No fear, anger, happiness—nothing emotional based. It's just a status check. 

She said it will not inhibit the creation of a Basic Empathic Link to another person, though, and that it won't let us know if the other is nearby or not, because distance doesn't matter. It feels the same whether she's right in front of me, or in Seaside. Apparently, it's sometimes found after a Scenario Level 6 link or above is broken. In every one of those cases, both parties didn't want the bond to break, but did it anyway. Our names were added to that list. 

I was grateful that Mayor Maggie told taught us how to use it. All I have to do is focus on an image of Mel in my minds eye. Knowing this connection is here gives me peace of mind, as it does for Mel and Kenshin. Because we're aware of it, we're able to continue with our lives.

Her green eyes softened, and the history of the night we met darkened behind them. It let me understand that she remembered what that trauma felt like for me. For half that night, it belonged to her. "I lost you to this once, Taki." She leaned across the desk to rest her palm gently against my cheek. "I can't lose you again."

The office filled with a heavy silence intermixed with birdsong through the open windows. And one cricket.

"So," she planted both hands against the bundle of aquatic gear, "I'm here to give you the tools to fight back. Put it on and meet me at the dock."

Before I could speak to either agree or argue my case, she was out the door leaving me with my mouth hanging open around a choked response. The chair creaked as I flopped back in a heavy sigh.

"I've got it covered here, Mayor," Isabelle smiled. The little bell tie around her hair bun jingled lightly to her head tilt. "Nothing to worry about."

"Sure, for you." I held up the suit, then went to the bathroom to change. "My girlfriend seems to want to send me to the Overthere."

"That's silly."

"Why am I doing this again, Isabelle?" I called from behind the closed door.

"Because you love her, sir," The answer slipped under the door as smoothly as reporting the daily bulletin news.

"Right." I zipped up the suit and stepped back into the office. "Do me a favor: Repeat that until I walk out the door."

"Yes, sir."

"And then use the bullhorn as I walk away."

She snickered. "Ok, sir."

"And then the town PA system."

"That might be overdoing it, sir."

* * * * 

I felt every pair of eyes in Leafside—including the bugs—on me as I slugged the long way down to the beach. My heart raced the closer I came to the rushing 'whoosh' of the waves rolling onto the shore.

My demise lay at sea level. Again.

“I love her. I love her. I love her...” I mumbled the words over and over to myself in a mantra to keep my feet moving.

A small group of animals were watching. I tried to forget they were there, but their voices carried on the breeze.

“Is that the mayor?”

“Can't be. He hates water.”

“But he's in a wet suit.”

“That's definitely the mayor.”

“How many humans are living here again?”

“It is the mayor! And he's heading for the ocean! He's been body-snacked by aliens!”

“Idiot. It's body- _snatched_. Not body- _snacked_. And aliens don't exist.”

“Then how do you explain this? He's even talking to himself!”

“Wait, lemme listen... He's saying... 'I loath her.' Huh? No, wait, 'I love her.' Oh yeah! Mel is in town!”

“Ah, the power of love.”

“Seriously. How many humans are living here again?”

I picked up my pace.

A loud sneeze to my right by the pathway to the beach whipped me around. There, basking in the sun next to a coconut palm tree, half hidden by a classic tri-fold tanning mirror, stretched my best friend and town idiot rabbit attempting to turn his black fur into a deeper shade of charcoal. A pair of oval shades plopped over his pink nose. My eyes narrowed at the idea of any kind of audience for my aquatic embarrassment. "Cole, what are you doing here?"

"It's a public beach, Sir," he stated plainly. His bucked teeth gave him a slight lisp. "I'm catching some sweet rays. Can you move out of my tree space? You're standing in my sun."

"It's a public palm tree."

"I licked it. It's mine."

"It doesn't work that way, and that's disgusting."

"Well I need to get the perfect tan. The ladies are gonna love it." He posed like a dark Adonis to the sun.

"A tan."

"Yup."

"How?"

"That orange ball in the sky."

"I mean your fur. It...never mind." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"Oh, I use reruns of Bob Ross for that. That guy's voice is like audio chamomile. I am Out. In. Seconds."

I looked out at my new nemesis: the ocean.

Mel stood in it up to her waist wearing a one piece bathing suit that I honestly couldn't take my eyes off of... until I saw what floated next to her. Riding the gentle waves on a yellow inflatable tube like a tawny colored bobber was someone that flat-lined my barely-sustained bravery to go through with this.

My jaw slacked. "Molly?!"

"Hello, Mayor! Glad you could make it, I'm cute." She smiled.

In a hundred years, I would never regret telling her that catch phrase was perfect. "Um, Mel, your 'swimming expert' is a duckling?"

"Exactly! She's a duck! She's an expert by nature," she smiled. "It makes perfect sense."

"Ducks float, though."

Molly puffed up her soft, downy chest. "I stayed up all night reading about water safety for humans, Mayor Taki. Don't worry. I'm a master, now! You're under good wings with me."

"I don't want to be under anything except a canopy over a hammock." But it seemed my fate here was sealed.

Molly leaned over the tube, causing the back to tip up in her excitement. "Come on in, Mayor! It'll be fun! See?" She kicked up tiny sprays. "The water's fi—Wu'ah!" The tube pitched her head over tail feathers. Her wings flapped against the foamy surface as her little webbed feet bicycled in the air.

Mel quickly flipped the tiny duckling upright. "Molly, be careful. That tube is for Taki, not for you, silly."

That ring of air-filled plastic was supposed to make me feel safe, but a little water foul weighing the same as a bag of bells capsized it.

This did not bode well for me.

I gulped. "Oh no."

* * * *

The End.

* * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you've enjoyed this story. Thank you for sticking with me, and for joining Taki, Mel, Kenshin, and Cecelia on this wild ride. It's been an amazing journey to create this story over the past year, and I had a blast, and scared myself along the way. I honestly miss it already. Please don't forget to leave a comment, share, and as always, happy writing. ^_^ Byeee!
> 
> (Top art by  
> むらやくばのあさ : https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=34127661 )


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